Persephone at Mid-Life
Revisiting Feminist Archetypal Theory in a Personal Journey Through Menopause
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14948716 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Pickard (0000-0003-3429-8880, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 132-146 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-7350 • E-ISSN: 1745-5189 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09667350231208137 |
| OpenAlex | W4388906287 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
This article suggests that feminist archetypal theory provides a helpful and empowering framework through which to understand embodied change as experienced in contemporary times. A mainstream approach associated with second-wave feminism, it has fallen victim to poststructuralist critiques and is rarely used, despite a renewed popularity of goddess archetypes in broader lay culture. I argue that this framework deserves revisiting as, in generating positive images and plots, it can serve as a source of empowerment and strength for women and especially so where hegemonic contemporary discourses are overwhelmingly negative and medicalised, as in the case of menopause. Using auto-ethnographic methods, I illustrate this with reference to my own lived experience of menopausal transition. Finally, and just as importantly, I show how this approach configures a different and more holistic kind of knowledge that recognises connection, relationality and communion of self, others and world, rather than separation and domination
Aesthetics · Archetype · Art · Embodied cognition · Empowerment · Epistemology · Feminism · Hegemony · Literature · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Popularity · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |