Reforging gods, reclaiming myth: Feminist revisionist mythmaking in the poetry of Barbara Jane Reyes

• Main Author: Galasinao, Elvis A, Jr.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2024
• Subjects: Barbara Jane Reyes; Mythology, Philippine—In literature; Feminism and literature; American Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_lit/20
• Institution: De La Salle University

Over recent decades, feminist scholars and female authors have pursued a revisionist approach to transform and redefine myths that traditionally depict women in a stereotypical and reductive manner. A landmark study in this direction is Harriet Macmillan’s thesis entitled “The Stories We Tell Ourselves to Make Ourselves Come True: Feminist Rewriting of Mythology in the Canongate Myths Series.” At the outset, one is drawn to the keywords in the title: stories, tell, come true, feminist rewriting. They all echo a revisionist energy that is recognized within feminist theory as a call to action for women writers to critically examine and counter the mythological, folkloric, and religious stories that have historically propagated misogynistic views. Such a process enables poets like Barbara Jane Reyes to scrutinize and reinterpret the gender dynamics in the myths they engage with. For Reyes, these narratives are a powerful platform to counteract and establish an alternative canon. Through her inquiry into these classic tales in her poetry, Reyes empowers the female figure to take on a more dynamic and creative role, crafting and shaping meaning rather than merely serving as its vessel. This thesis delves into the innovative revisionist myths in Barbara Jane Reyes's poetry collections, including “Letters to a Young Brown Girl” (2020),” “Invocation to Daughters” (2017), “To Love as Aswang” (2015), “Diwata” (2010), “Poeta en San Francisco” (2005), and “Gravities of Center” (2003). Echoing Macmillan’s approach, these poetry collections are scrutinized as a singular compilation, aiming to uncover the influence and potency of integrating a feminist lens in the reinterpretation of mythological tales. Reyes’s poetic gesture is viewed as a deliberate act of resistance against oppressive mythological constructs that depict women as silent, passive, or objectified, aiming to address and dismantle these issues critically. The analysis explores how Reyes employs literary techniques such as tone variation, use of pronouns, metaphorical and biblical references, narrative style, and repetition as tools in her revisionist myth-making approach to engage her audience and drive social change. The main arguments suggest that, echoing the work of Macmillan and other feminist scholars, mythology is a strong foundation for women writers from various cultural backgrounds to investigate the gendered aspects of myth-making and storytelling. This research underlines the necessity of comprehending the precise historical and situational contexts in which these myths originated and their evolution over time. It highlights exploring narratives from personal, social, and self-reflective perspectives. Additionally, such a stance can now be gleaned in a growing body of feminist writings. This is only to say that the act of revision inherent in feminist rewriting is critical, as it constructs an alternative worldview that challenges entrenched beliefs.