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Valerie Estelle Frankel, From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine's Journey through Myth and Legend. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Books, ISBN 978-0-7864-4831-9. 367pp.
Review by Katie Laity
Building upon Joseph Campbell's well-trod notion of the hero's journey, Frankel offers an exploration of the heroine's journey as a corrective to the masculine focus ofthat work. She draws from many cultures across the globe to embody heroines who take on active roles to move through the steps of the Jungian process of facing and integrating the dark side to achieve wisdom and power.
Writing this book has clearly been a labor of love for Frankel; in the introduction she speaks eagerly of her love for myths since childhood, imbibing their ever-fresh waters. Her research is comprehensive, taking in traditions across the world, noting that "Mindful of my weaker areas, I checked out West African tales, Peruvian tales, Zuni, Australian" (9). She offers a table of equivalencies to Campbell's steps on the journey.
The final step for Campbell is "Freedom to Live," while for Frankel's heroines, it is "Ascension of the New Mother." Frankel describes the difference for the tale with a female protagonist as being "a tale...