The Myth of Persephone in Girls' Fantasy Literature

In this book, Blackford historicizes the appeal of the Persephone myth in the nineteenth century and traces figurations of Persephone, Demeter, and Hades throughout girls literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She illuminates developmental patterns and anxieties in E. T. A. Hoffmanns Nutcracker and Mouse King, Louisa May Alcotts Little Women, Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights, J. M. Barries Peter and Wendy, Frances Hodgson Burnetts The Secret Garden, E. B. Whites Charlottes Web, J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Stephenie Meyers Twilight, and Neil Gaimans Coraline. The story of the young goddesss separation from her mother and abduction into the underworld is, at root, an expression of ambivalence about female development, expressed in the various Neverlands through which female protagonists cycle and negotiate a partial return to earth. The myth conveys the role of female development in the perpetuation and renewal of humankind, coordinating natural and cultural orders through a hieros gamos (fertility coupling) rite. Meanwhile, popular novels such as Twilight and Coraline are paradoxically fresh because they recycle goddesses from myths as old as the seasons. With this book, Blackford offers a consideration of how literature for the young squares with broader canons, how classics flexibly and uniquely speak through novels that enjoy broad appeal, and how female traditions are embedded in novels by both men and women.