This thesis explores contemporary retellings of the myth of Persephone in the romance genre as a platform where dominant gendered discourses of consent are challenged and disrupted and alternative discourses of sexual consent negotiation are fostered, as well as arguing that such retellings can be viewed as a new form of feminist revisionism. This thesis employs an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on feminist theories, reception theories, fan studies, and popular romance studies. These theoretical frameworks contribute to the examination of dominant discourses surrounding sex and consent and its social implications, as well as the examination of how romantic retellings of the myth of Persephone may impact and potentially challenge these discursive constructions and concepts. Within the scope of this thesis, I examine the treatment and depictions of sexual consent negotiation in Receiver of Many by Rachel Alexander and Persephone’s Vow by Ophelia Silk, both novels reflecting prevalent themes and trends seen in the recent romantic adaptations focusing on the relationship between Hades and Persephone. This thesis argues that by utilizing the myth’s issues of consent as a way of exploring and presenting mainly gendered power imbalances, particularly those giving rise to female sexual compliance, as the main threat and obstacle to overcome in an unequal romantic and sexual relationship, these works display an apparent dissatisfaction towards dominant dichotomous and gendered discursive constructions of sexuality and consent. Moreover, this thesis contend that it is the deliberate changes and efforts made to the myth to engage in female-oriented sexual and romantic fantasies that enable these retellings to challenge and disrupt prevailing notions of sexuality and consent in means that may be unobtainable within academic circles and high literature. In particular, it is their proposed framework of sexual consent negotiation and relationship dynamics, particularly how the more powerful (male) partner should actively acknowledge and reduce gendered societal norms contributing to coerced sexual encounters, that provide an alternative discourse of how sexual consent should be ensured and made palpable. This discourse entails shifting the focus of women's sexuality from the periphery to the center, normalizing and providing a language for negotiating (and revoking) consent, and reframing some normalized sexual actions and behaviors as potentially coercive if not for deliberate and conscious efforts made to ensure that any consent given is authentic and substantial.
Here's the abstract: