This is an old revision of the document!
World Literature: The Hero and the Woman's Role
Rationale
Each of these texts covers a wide range of heroic archetypes from the classics such as Gilgamesh to modern versions of the damaged warrior in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. This establishes the classic hero's path or journey, and the hero's gate is the predecessor to the comic book trope of the origin story. This list also represent women throughout various pieces of literature. While Miss Julie and A Dollhouse may stand out as different, they are the contrast of the mythical woman to the women of the realism genre. There is literature to represent various forms of the woman warrior throughout different genres.
Brecht, Bertolt. Caucasian Chalk Circle
--Mother Courage and Her Children
Callaghan, Sheila. Kate Crackernuts (play)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
de Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quixote
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. Carmilla
The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin
Hopkinson, Nalo. Brown Girl in the Ring
The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus
Iron Maiden. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery, and Other Stories
--We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Jemisin, N.K. The Fifth Season
Lang, Andrew. Kate Crackernuts (collected fairy tales)
Lindgren, Astrid. Pipi Longstocking
de Navarre, Marguerite. The Heptameron
Okorafor, Nnedi. Who Fears Death, Daw Books
de Pizan, Christine. Book of the City of Ladies
Strindberg, August. Miss Julie
Stravinsky, Igor. The Rite of Spring (ballet)
Takeuchi, Naoko. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol. 1
