Explanation
Correct answer: A.
Choice A is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of a literary subgenre that reimagines Greek and Roman myths in a more modern cultural context—namely, the greater visibility and psychological depth of female characters. According to the text, purists object that this subgenre imposes modern values on past civilizations, while the subgenre’s defenders argue that reimagining old myths for new cultural contexts is “almost as old as the myths themselves.” If this argument in defense of the subgenre is accurate, then bringing female perspectives to the forefront of myth is reflective of a long-established attitude regarding writers’ freedom to recontextualize the ideologies of Greek and Roman myths instead of remaining absolutely faithful to them.
Why the other choices are wrong
Choice B
Choice B is incorrect because the text suggests that modern writers who foreground female characters in their adaptations of Greek and Roman myths are motivated by a desire to counterbalance the primacy of male perspectives in the myths themselves, not in earlier adaptations of those myths. The text doesn’t indicate that the modern writers are responding to earlier adaptations and only discusses those adaptations in the context of the argument that recontextualizing Greek and Roman myths is a very old practice.
Choice C
Choice C is incorrect because the defenders’ claim concerns the general practice of reimagining myths for new cultural contexts, not specifically a tradition of focusing on female characters. The text doesn’t indicate that earlier reimaginings centered on female characters, so it wouldn’t be logical to conclude that purists are overlooking a long tradition of adapting myths to focus on female characters specifically.
Choice D
Choice D is incorrect. While the text supports the claim that the modern retellings of Greek and Roman myths have given complex motivations to the female characters, it doesn’t associate this development with a trend toward the portrayal of greater psychological depth in fiction more broadly or claim that such a trend exists. Moreover, the claim that there is an association wouldn’t follow logically from the last sentence of the text, which asserts that reimagining myths in new cultural contexts is an established practice.