How to Cite:
Nikoletta Papadimitriou, "Rewriting the Canon: Gender, Race, and Power in the Modern Reinterpretation of Classical Texts" International Journal of Humanities Science Innovations and Management Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-10, 2024.

Abstract:
This paper investigates the contemporary reinterpretation of classical texts through the intersecting lenses of gender, race, and power. By analyzing modern adaptations and retellings of canonical works from Greek tragedies to Shakespearean plays this study explores how historically marginalized voices are reclaiming narrative authority. These reinterpretations not only challenge the traditional literary canon but also reflect broader cultural shifts toward inclusivity and decolonization. Drawing on feminist theory, critical race theory, and postcolonial critique, the paper examines how reimagining the canon allows for new dialogues between past and present, revealing the enduring relevance of these texts while critiquing the structures they once upheld.

Keywords: Canon, Reinterpretation, Classical Literature, Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, Postcolonialism, Adaptation, Power Structures, Feminist Critique, Literary Revisionism.

References:
[1] M. Bucur, Gendering Modernism: A Historical Reappraisal of the Canon, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
[2] Eardley, “Recreating the Canon: Women Writers and Anthologies of Early Modern Verse,” Women's Writing, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 270–289, 2007.
[3] D. Clarke, “The early modern canon and the construction of women’s writing,” Textual Practice, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 299–317, Feb 2024.
[4] K. Barclay & R. Carr, “Rewriting the Scottish Canon: the Contribution of Women’s and Gender History to a Redefinition of Social Classes,” Études écossaises, no. 16, pp. 11–28, 2013.
[5] V. Elliott, “Canon in colour: Contextual Knowledge of Race and Empire as Powerful Knowledge,” International Journal of Multicultural Education, 2024.
[6] V. Reyes and K. A. C. Johnson, “Teaching the Veil: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Classical Theory Courses,” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 233–246, 2020.
[7] J. W. Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” American Historical Review, vol. 91, no. 5, pp. 1053–1075, 1986.
[8] N. S. Rabinowitz and A. Richlin (eds.), Feminist Theory and the Classics, Routledge, 1993.
[9] G. Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, Oxford University Press, 2018.
[10] A. D. Smith, “Ovid, Race and Identity in E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime and Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition, vol. 26, pp. 109–126, 2019.
[11] P. Trible, “Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation,” in Rhetoric & Theology, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1–16, 1999.