"A Chorus Line": Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad at the Crossroads of Narrative, Poetic and Dramatic Genres*

ask for the story, the speaker of Margaret Atwood's 1981 poem True Stories implores; why do you need it? / It's not what I set out with / or what I carry. / [...] lies / the other / [...] is / and and untrue / [...] Don't ever / ask for the story. This poem might very well serve as a motto for Margaret Atwood's novel Penelopiad, which features many both vicious and multiple and also untrue. Penelopiad (2005) could be described as attempt to depict such true story lying among the other stories, in more ways than one, not just the as seen by and seen by another character, but also the as told in prose and in verse.In her novel, Atwood artfully employs a mix of narrative, poetic and dramatic styles. While the main narrative-a retelling of Homer's Odyssey by Penelope-comes along as a straightforward narrative in the vein of Christa Wolf's Kassandra, Atwood intersperses Penelope's tale with lyrical segments, giving voice to the twelve maids killed by Telemachus on Odysseus' return to Ithaca. Both ancient Greek chorus and modern musical number, these lyrical interludes employ a range of poetic genres, from nursery rhyme to sea shanty to ballad and idyll, thus giving the maids voice as a collective. Further interludes have them take on singular roles in, variously, a courtroom drama and anthropology lecture.This paper is going to investigate the various forms and functions of Atwood's poetic insertions into her narrative text.1 Incidentally, Atwood's Penelopiad is quite literally situated at a crossroads of genres, as Atwood herself turned her novel into a play. Differences between the novel and play version of Penelopiad as regards the lyrical interludes will therefore also be discussed. I will argue that the interludes serve as a performative enactment of the silenced female voices of the Odyssey. They may furthermore serve as a pointer, invitation extended to the reader to go in search of silenced voices haunting other texts of the Western literary canon.A Line of EchoesSince the time of its inception, Homer's Odyssey has inspired many rewritings.2 most prominent them have made Odysseus, the epic's protagonist, the centre of their work. In his seminal study Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero, W. B. Stanford identifies the complexity of the epic's protagonist with regard to his character and exploits as the main reason for Odysseus' enduring popularity with subsequent writers (7). Later critics, such as Edith Hall in Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey, extend Stanford's argument by pointing towards a whole cast of characters that might attract future readers' and writers' attention, stating that one reason for the poem's enduring popularity must be that its personnel is so varied that every ancient or modern listener, of any age, sex or status, seaman or servant, will have found someone with whom to identify (4).3Margaret Atwood's rewriting of Homer's Odyssey is then, in her own words, an of of echo (Penelopiad: Play v).4 Penelopiad was originally commissioned as a novel, as part of the Canongate Myths which saw a number of well-known authors rewrite traditional myths (Atwood, The Myths Series 58). Two years after the publication of the novel, Penelopiad: Play premiered in July 2007 at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, a co-production with Canada's National Arts Center, and the play later transferred to Canada as well.5 For her portrayal of Penelope, Margaret Atwood drew on both the Odyssey and other mythological sources of Greek antiquity (cf. Penelopiad 19798).6 novel consists of two intertwined narratives: in the main narrative, Penelope, speaking from the Underworld, relates her life from birth to the end of the Trojan War and, finally, Odysseus' return to Ithaca. …

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