This collection focuses on the complex interrelationship of revenge and gender in ancient Greek and Roman literature, Icelandic sagas and medieval and early modern English literature. It probes revenge’s gendering, its role in consolidating and contesting gender norms, and its relation to friendship, family roles and kinship structures. It argues that while revenge frequently functions as a repressive cultural script that reinforces conservative gender roles, it also repeatedly triggers events that disturb gender norms, blurring conventional male/female and animal/human binaries, and provoking ... More

This collection focuses on the complex interrelationship of revenge and gender in ancient Greek and Roman literature, Icelandic sagas and medieval and early modern English literature. It probes revenge’s gendering, its role in consolidating and contesting gender norms, and its relation to friendship, family roles and kinship structures. It argues that while revenge frequently functions as a repressive cultural script that reinforces conservative gender roles, it also repeatedly triggers events that disturb gender norms, blurring conventional male/female and animal/human binaries, and provoking wider ontological questions. It analyses the ways in which women are seen to be transmogrified by revenge and asks whether there are particular forms of revenge (such as cursing or gossip) that are gendered female. It also examines lamentation, a female-gendered activity which enables women to play an important role in revenge narratives. Including literary works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Thomas Kyd, Shakespeare, John Marston and John Ford, this collection explores continuities between historical periods as well as the ways in which texts and traditions diverge.