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annieb123's review
5.0
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
The Heroine with 1001 Faces is an immersive folklore based examination of the heroine archetype in the collective cultural consciousness written and presented by Dr. Maria Tatar. Released 14th Sept 2021 by W.W. Norton on their Liveright imprint, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is an erudite, very well written, layperson accessible look at the archetypes and portrayals of women in cultural narrative from the ancient world to the 21st century. It's a meticulously researched and annotated survey course and also, in a way, a companion volume (rebuttal?) to Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces. I loved poring over the illustrations as well as the exhaustive bibliography and full chapter notes and annotations. The chapter notes are likely worth the price of admission for anyone interested in the subject and there's obviously been a swoonworthy amount of time spent on research and resource gathering on the part of the author. I took notes during the read and harvested an impressive number of items which warranted further examination later.
I found the entire book quite interesting and fascinating. It is, admittedly, a niche book but will definitely appeal to readers interested in cultural anthropology. It's not a very easy read. The language is rigorous and formal. I definitely don't think it's inaccessible for the average reader, but it will take some effort (and I think that's a good thing). This would make a good support text for classroom or library use, for cultural anthropology and allied subjects, as well as a superlative read for those who are particularly interested in history, culture, and the arts.
Five stars. This is well and deeply researched and engaging.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Heroine with 1001 Faces is an immersive folklore based examination of the heroine archetype in the collective cultural consciousness written and presented by Dr. Maria Tatar. Released 14th Sept 2021 by W.W. Norton on their Liveright imprint, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is an erudite, very well written, layperson accessible look at the archetypes and portrayals of women in cultural narrative from the ancient world to the 21st century. It's a meticulously researched and annotated survey course and also, in a way, a companion volume (rebuttal?) to Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces. I loved poring over the illustrations as well as the exhaustive bibliography and full chapter notes and annotations. The chapter notes are likely worth the price of admission for anyone interested in the subject and there's obviously been a swoonworthy amount of time spent on research and resource gathering on the part of the author. I took notes during the read and harvested an impressive number of items which warranted further examination later.
I found the entire book quite interesting and fascinating. It is, admittedly, a niche book but will definitely appeal to readers interested in cultural anthropology. It's not a very easy read. The language is rigorous and formal. I definitely don't think it's inaccessible for the average reader, but it will take some effort (and I think that's a good thing). This would make a good support text for classroom or library use, for cultural anthropology and allied subjects, as well as a superlative read for those who are particularly interested in history, culture, and the arts.
Five stars. This is well and deeply researched and engaging.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
withlivjones's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
A really interesting and detailed feminist study in response to Joseph Campbell’s famous 1949 book. Tatar explores a massive range of heroines, from ancient mythology to folk tales to contemporary books and films. There are so many different case studies that just shows how there really isn’t one way to be a heroine - unlike Campbell’s hero with 1000 faces and his model of the hero’s journey, there are so many ways in which female characters can do heroic and transgressive deeds.
A few things:
- There is a fairly wide range of source material that Tatar discusses, but I noticed that particularly with the contemporary texts they were quite Western-focused; I would have loved to see, for example, a discussion on the heroines of Studio Ghibli films or Shoujo manga.
- While the book is interesting, there’s a lot of quite dense prose to wade through, and so I found that the book ended up feeling a bit repetitive and losing the full effect of its messages.
- Prepare to have many many books and films spoiled for you - the sheer volume of case studies is great but it also means that a lot of plots get spoiled within a paragraph so that the heroines of said plots can be discussed in depth (for example, if you’re still catching up on GoT I would avoid the last chapter).
A few things:
- There is a fairly wide range of source material that Tatar discusses, but I noticed that particularly with the contemporary texts they were quite Western-focused; I would have loved to see, for example, a discussion on the heroines of Studio Ghibli films or Shoujo manga.
- While the book is interesting, there’s a lot of quite dense prose to wade through, and so I found that the book ended up feeling a bit repetitive and losing the full effect of its messages.
- Prepare to have many many books and films spoiled for you - the sheer volume of case studies is great but it also means that a lot of plots get spoiled within a paragraph so that the heroines of said plots can be discussed in depth (for example, if you’re still catching up on GoT I would avoid the last chapter).
Content Warnings
Minor: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and War
reindeerbandit's review
look i admit i did not get very far at all before abandoning this, but it’s just that the entire beginning is a takedown of a guy i don’t know and his book that i haven’t read, and then it’s a whole list of stuff she’s going to talk about but immediately after her “so let’s dive in” she starts with an analysis of that guy’s book. which i didn’t read bc i don’t want to read it, so i certainly don’t want to read a book of someone else talking about it. i wanted to read about some baddies and reclaiming our space in history. maybe she does that later but i’m not interested enough in the filler to get there.
popelc6's review
3.0
Great concept that didn't quite drive home conclusions as well as I wanted. Also, holy spoilers - luckily I'm pretty well read and have a large appetite for both modern and more classic television and film because the plots of dozens of stories were completely laid out which could be disappointing to some (some in full chapters and some over the span of 30 seconds - hello Arya and GoT).
menniemenace's review
4.0
4.5/5
This book is single-handedly carrying me through my feminist analysis portion of my 4th year. It's simple, clever, and just all-around impressive
This book is single-handedly carrying me through my feminist analysis portion of my 4th year. It's simple, clever, and just all-around impressive