Great Heroines: Medieval to Modern

Abstract

The present study builds upon a previous paper for the course 'Great Heroes: Medieval to Modern', titled ‘Medieval Heroines: A Revised Heroic Framework’ (Reinhoud 2016), that developed a female heroic framework based on an analysis of thirteen medieval heroines. The aim of the present thesis is to reassess and adapt that framework to make it applicable to modern heroines, in the same way that most of the traditional male frameworks are still valid for modern heroes. In addition to analysing the more obvious heroines, the present study also looks at some more dubious heroines, based on the earlier essay’s findings on Grendel’s mother, as heroic frameworks tend to leave little room for such heroes and heroines.