Mythweavers: Narrative Author-ity in Anne Carson’s Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

This paper explores Anne Carson’s reimagining of Euripides’s Helen through her interweaving of the mythological heroine’s story with that of Norma Jeane Baker, Marilyn Monroe’s birth name. In collapsing temporal boundaries, Carson draws attention to the timelessness of fictionalizing the self, of a persona. The composite character Norma Jeane Baker of Troy thus becomes an opportunity for Carson to reflect on not only violent acts committed against women, including rape, but also the removal of their agency as storytellers and testifiers of their own pain and loss. Carson’s adaptation of Euripides for a post-#MeToo world unveils that myths are not monolithic, but composed of a polyphonic chorus of versions that altogether enrich and add complexity to the story being told.