Curso Doctorado Literatura Norteamericana

2005/2006

Curso Doctorado Literatura Norteamericana

2005/2006

Curso Doctorado Literatura Norteamericana

Parte de Dulce
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton: From Silence to Subversin
Martes 8-11-05

heoretical !ntroduction:
Some women poets from the late 50s, 60s emerged in the literary arena exposing the true self therefore they violated the existent literary form of the time. You should be very mind that the critic had a new criticism and we can find there the parameters of the new style they are very much detached. he text is considered as an autonomous

identity, with no personal implication. So, these women poets although they started in that literary tradition, eventually they found themselves loo!ing for the true voice. he literary critic

Shirley "arner said# $%a!ing a language that can articulate female experience women were left mute or mimic.&

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$Silence is more significant when there is the word. 'o not turn ourselves to a guardian and deadly muteness.& (irginia )olf# $*y degrees the silence is bro!en& +ccording to some critics, womens writing is a double voiced discourse that always embodies the social literary and cultural heritages of both. ,n the one hand the muted and on the other the dominant discourse -man.. +ccording to the anthropologist Shirley and /dwin +itener they said that women constituted the muted group. he

boundaries of whose culture and reality overlap but the dominant group. +ccording to /laine Showalter in her analysis the idea of this muted group, convey problems of language and power. he

dominant groups control the forms of structure in which consciousness can be articulated. he muted group musses use these forms of the dominant structures in their discourse. Showalter affirms that in the past when the female experience could not accommodate to the androcentric models, was considered to be deviant or simply ignored. 0owever, as Showalter indicates these positions begin to form part of the past.

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+ctually, the part of feminine discourse, which escaped from the dominant gramps, begins to act according to their criteria in social and cultural 1uestions. So, towards the middle of the 20 th century women writers ta!e conscience of their position in the dominant group and fight or struggle in order not to be ignored. Sylvia 3lath and +nne Sexton are good exponents of this new style of writing. 4nitially they form their style of according to the poetics of )illiams, ).*. Yeats, .S. /lliot, +llan ate and 5ohn 6ansom. +s 4 said, new criticism emphasi7ed the textual rather than the social or the moral analysis of the text. 4t was a formal and academic style. o achieve a personal voice in that context meant, according to 'iane 8iddlebroo!# $9inding a way into admit into poetry not only the raw social oppression, personal crisis, ordinary pain but also the female.& hus, the 2nd half of the 20th century has been the scenery of a radical change in :orth ;+merican poetry, not only in general terms but specially in womens poetry. he emergence of women feminism in the 60s was the occasion to develop a political and poetic activity with the conviction that both struggles could be together.

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he poetic activity of these women was characterised by being accessible and with a direct style. he basic theme was the feminine experience. he barrier between the public and the private was abolished. hey try to define the self<re=ecting cultural definition. hey were interested in revealing the substance of their lives. his new tendency in poetry was, among other things, a reaction against male definitions, not only of poetry but also of women. 9or this definition of the self<specific, feminine terms the points of reference they had were exactly those that feminist were trying to find. )omen of the late 50s and 60s is the time of the $feminist mystic&, boo! written by *etty 9reidan in >?6@ which is a landmar!, founder of the national organi7ation for women :.+.). )e have to thin! that in the 50s after the 2 nd )orld )ar in the States was a great technological advance in every field and it was the time when they developed the car industry and home appliances oriented to $serve women& but that meant that women were trapped at home away from history, human and personal.

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o a point, women were accepting this patriarchal order but once they were aware of their situation, women were in a position to change. 4n those decades women had to endure a psychological pregnancy because, they were in constant

preparation for maternity. +nglo<Saxon 3rotestant..

his happened in the )+S3 -)hite +ny )+S3 woman who thought

something of herself, her aim in life was to be a wife and a mother. hats why +drianne 6ich -critic. who changed her

accommodated life as a mother and wife to lesbian and literary critic,& middle class women were ma!ing careers of domestic perfection. o these women home was the universe and personal happiness was wor!ed by this double condition.& )hen women did not fit in this pattern, they suffered from social re=ection, even maternal re=ection. - hey do not want to be li!e their own mothers. 4n this social context, women poets ventured themselves to brea! barriers, to face to conse1uences to explore new fields with sincerity. hey wanted to expose themselves to social and he readership of the time was not used to

academic re=ection.

women to spo!e clearly, women who spo!e with a na!ed and indecent discourse. he poets had to hide behind symbols,

metaphors, tropes and obscure allusions. :evertheless, experience. women poets tried to validate feminine

o develop a new form of poetry actually they

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choose consciously not to explore experiences central to their sex. o go against conventions was ris!yA it was a challenge

because they are despising by conventional literary criticism. hese personal experiences were mainly of suffering and

resistance and for these they tried to find suitable new forms and styles. he social context from which this poetry too! off was one in which everything was 1uestioned. +t that time -late 60s. all securities had vanished, so, in this social context many things come up among themA it was the mother<daughter relationship, characterised by dependent love. he increasing number of women poets of those decades constituted a literary movement similar to romanticism and modernism. %et us have a loo! to the elements according to critic Alicia Ostriker: >. 2. @. B. he 1uest for autonomous self<definition. he intimate treatment of the body. he relies of anger. he contact imperative.

>.

he terms in which women define themselves have

nothing to do with the mythic female figure, which male have forgotten in their mind.

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here is a reputation of that myth. She has decided not to be the $traditional& male muse. She re=ects the figure of $the angel of the house&. She does not want to be the ob=ect of metaphors made by males. +gain, Sylvia 3lath and +nne Sexton are good examples of female poets embar!ed in this 1uest. *oth of them write poems characterised by a recurrent self<definition. hey ma!e

use of pe=orative terms they deal with intimate topics. *oth decide who they are and how they are. he result is usually a

poetry that is in the antipodes of the mythic traditional image of women. he Confessional poets, fostered movement by 6obert %owell, bro!e with the academic establishments -new critics.. hey wrote poetry preoccupied with the self. their personal lives. hey expose

hey show their tormented 4. /ach poem

is a declaration of dependence, anger, guilty feelings, anguish and sufferings. +nne Sexton and Sylvia 3lath attended a literary wor!shop between in *oston. hey both considered %owell their spiritual

father and both were very much influenced. 0e also committed suicide. herefore, Sexton and 3lath were determined not to lie in verse but to expose their private anguish and persona fears. he analysis of their poetry is often obscure and difficult.

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+ctually, psychoanalysis has been of a great help Dcos the poem of a tormented, repressed person may reveal more than the mere appearance shows. ,ften the unconscious spea!s through the conscious going beyond its barriers and violating the censure of the super<ego. he super<ego, the ego and it

are three categories of the conscious established by 9reud. /go is the central figureA it debates itself between the conflictive tendencies of the $it& and the authority of the super<ego. Super<ego represents moral authority, social prohibition and internali7ation of the father and of culture. 2. he presence of the body is clear in 3lath and Sextons poetry. heir poetic creation is almost a biography. hey create images alluding different parts of the body, images of dismemberment, abortion, masturbation, hey show a

menopause, ill decadent dying body.

feminine anatomy that is humiliating and arrogant. Sometimes shameful and sometimes proud. @. +nger has been a forbidden feeling. raditionally absent

from womens poetry but poets from the post war period, the confessional, bro!e with the taboo of repression. anger. hey dare to express their inner fears and

hey compose poems that are fantasies of

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revenge -'addy.. herefore, when they are frustrated

they release revenge and anger. B. 4n both poems it is evident the desire to relate to each he boundaries of their personalities are open, fluid.

other.

hey are mar!ed by a desire of connection more than separation. here is mutuality continuity, identification and his contact will affect the way women write

physical touch.

about personal relations, love, time, history, politics, etc. hey explore continuity between generations. 'aughters write about parents and grandparents. + mother writes about her children expressing an ambivalent

relationship. herefore, the presence of the family in 3lath and Sextons poetry seems to be inevitable showing the importance of connections between generations.

hese

emotions

are

particularly

evident

in

the

mother<

daughter, father< daughter relationships and very often, these emotional states were unsuitable of the female poet, especially if there was transparency in sexual matters. 0owever, these women defy all these social and literary conventions and write poems that $denounce lies, reveal secrets and brea!s silences.& -+drianne 6ich.

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6obert "raves said#&woman is not a poet, she is either muse or nothing.& hese women refuse to be a muse and from being an hese female writers experiment he old

ob=ect, they become a sub=ect.

with form and content they devise the cultural myth.

stories are changed by the !nowledge of female experiences. 8yth in general is the foundation of collective unconscious and seems to be unchangeable. reality but women hey create an artificial image of the myth and revised it.

appropriated

herefore, the old stories are changed.

he familiar figures are

altered she does not identify herself the traditional mythological figure. She becomes the protagonist in her own terms subverting the myth. hey compose poetry of subversion established by

academic circles.

"Loo# $or he lau%h o$ &edusa' rans$ormation( Anne Sexton)

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Jueves 10-11-05

Sylvia Plath:
From Existencial Re resion to !extual Ex ression"#
9or her literature was a way to went out. 1. The Mother-Daughter dynamics:

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he bonds stood longer than they should. + 3re< ,edipal complex, by which the boy experiences attraction to his mother, later learns to separate from her, and identifies himself with the father, who eventually is perceived as a rival. 4n time, the boy directs his body instincts to another woman different from his mother. herefore, according to 9reud, the 3re< ,edipal stage

corresponds to the time when the baby has not yet ac1uired language. +ccording to 9reud, the mother is the first love, eventually her breast. identity. he creature has no notion about physical

he baby feels his mothers body as a continuous of

pleasure and plenitude. 4f the baby remains in definitive in this symbiosis with the mother it will never ac1uire its own identity. herefore, at this stage, he desires his mothers body, but this is forbidden in our culture. he $fathers law& is the ancient who carries out this prohibition. +ccording to 9reud, the repression of these ancestors desires constitutes the unconscious. So, the $fathers law& controls those forbidden desires but they are not completely repressed having as a result a divided sub=ect. hen we have the oedipal phase, which is the fine in direction to the father, and rapture to the mother.

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*ut the mother<daughter bond is of a different nature if compared to that of the mother<son bond. *ecause there is not a complete rupture, li!e with the boy because the daughter is still attached to the mother, Chodorow, :ancyA 4rigaray, %uce and Cixous, 0elene. hese critics discovered or postulated is the hey

importance of the pre<oedipal bond in women writers.

celebrate the figure of the mother and in Chodorows opinion# $because women have been educated, brought up, they maintain these needs of having a close relationship to other women, particularly the women !eeping their ego<boundaries open and with continuity.& 2. Symbiosis, se aration and indi!iduation.

+ccording to psychologists, it has been proved the presence of these mother<daughter bonds. hese ties surface much later in life in the literary production of some writers reviving problems of symbiosis, separation and individuation, which are not always solved. Symbiosis# the period of close relation in the initial stage of

life with he care ta!er -mother or similar. usually the > st years of life. Separation# is the establishment of affirmed sense of

differentiation from the mother and the possession of personal boundaries.

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4ndividuation# 4s the development of ones personality#

womens seem to have more difficulties in achieving these goals due to the fact they have identified more with the mother. Sometimes they experience body confusion or as Chodorow said $0ype Symbiosis&.

1.

Matro"obia:

his is a term developed by +drian 6ich. $4t is not the fear, of ones mother or of motherhood but of becoming ones mother.& he re=ection. 6ich said $there is a desire to perform radical surgery. $)hat they fear is not only to identify themselves but also not having other identity as a mother. *ehind these we find that women writers perceived that motherhood is not valorised in this culture and they felt trapped in a role where no way out is. 9eminist critics trying to deal with the problem trying to solve this problem of source of strange and inspiration. 2. Ambi!alence. )imicott says that ambivalence is the confluence of opposing feelings oriented towards the same ob=ect. he feeling appears he child mother figure generates feelings of attraction vs

early in childhood producing and generating anxiety.

becomes a battlefield where opposing feelings are in war. Still

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wanted to stay with the mother and to brea! away of the ob=ect to achieve self<affirmation. #. Matter o" Ar$uety es. 4n the idea of mother is concentrated of source of cultural constructions. here are two basic types# the good mother vs the bad mother. his is the (ictorian heritage. -Snow<white.. he good mother is the angel of the house and support of the family while the other is the witch. herefore, the slitting of the endency to

mother figure is very common in this culture. dichotomise and to evaluate women. he confrontation generates ambivalent

feelings

li!e

attachment to the good mother because she is perceived as a source of nourishment and the bad mother produces

dissatisfaction. he desire for connection is transmuted into desire of re=ection. )omen writers were against the devouring mother associated with the mythic medusa and her petrified impulses. his

representation depicts her obscure side, a castrated figure. he good mother represents the nourishing, protection side of the mother, which is not usually in 3laths poetry. Sometimes she expresses desire to return to the mother but counterbalanced by a desire of re=ection.

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%. &ather-daughter relationshi . here is a metamorphosis because he goes from ideali7ation to comptent. She loved him and she was marbled with ambivalent figure. She desired to recover him but on the other hand, she described him as an oppressive figure, rigid and very severe. 0e suffers many changes in 3laths imagination and poetry there is a slow metamorphosis. he initial poems idealise this figures but eventually there is a progressive deterioration so in her final poems were aggressive and destructing figure of the father. 4t evolves from sorrow and regret to bitterness, desires to !ill him. herefore, in the ideali7ation of the father he underlines a secret between the father and the daughter. here is an attitude of secret wedding between the father and daughter. )e perceive latent incestuous relationships. She disguises rage, anger with nostalgia. 4n this evolution of the father figure, the true nature of her relation to him is revealed. 4n addition, we see that the father ac1uires human proportions and then guilty feelings appear. 4n the poem $'addy&, this is evidentA love and hate are the axes where the poem evolves. he poetic persona is Electra and

there is a different perspective. She does not reveal his fathers

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death but she !ills him. he primer effort to reconstruct the father

figure is transmuted into a criminal impulse. Sense of evolution. 4n the central episode of the poem we find the father murdered but there are other elements li!e lac! of communication. 4n the western culture the father is the %ogos, what she does is to !ill the real, and the symbolic father so there is an association between the father and the %ogos. 0is father was a professor in *oston Eniversity. 0e was called ,tto 3lath. She connects the death of her father with the death of the %ogos.

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Anne Sexton:
he Nonsto* rans%ression)
'unes 21-11-() 1. Strong desire o" connection: Oscillation bet*een "amily "igures: She had strong desires to be connected to certain figures. 4n her poems, she shifted from one person to another. She never achieved individuation.

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Chodorow said# $she ma!es explicit, in her poetry, her desires to be with her family, friends, lovers, psychiatrist,F& +ccording to Chodorow, principles this is having $fluid ego boundaries& to the point that these desires reach in Sexton enormous pathological nature. She expected from people a total dedication while she fed on them. -6apun7el. 2. +ana: The substitute Mother: Multi licity o" &eelings. his woman, her great<aunt, awo!e in Sexton a variety of feelings# guilty feelings, love, remorseF Sexton was a problematic child and she loo!ed for love and protection in this old woman, who arrived to love family. here was nearness, tenderness,

affection, and this physicality, this critici7ed by +nnes mother -)+S3., because it was a taboo to be so close to one of the family. herefore, :ana, is the affected in Sextons poetry by

matrophobic feelings, so, she becomes the embodiment of the good and bad mother. 4t has been analysed the possibility of a homoerotic relationship between them. 4t is not clearly stated by which an indirect way we can say that there is such relationship, so, +nne Sexton brea!s a double tabooA with this homosexual, and incestuous relationship. $6apun7el& is a good example, which reveals that tenderness and horror of her relationship of her substitute mother, but in Sextons poetry, we have different points of view at mother

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relationships. he way she loo!s at her mother and the way, she

loo!s at her daughters.

2a,. -omoerotic &eelings o" the Mother un!eiled in .iogra hy and Diary. She presents a veiled desire for her own daughter, but she is not very explicit. herefore, what the critics feel is that Sexton is pro=ecting in her relation with %inda -her daughter. her

problematic intimacy with :ana in her childhood. 2.b, To*ards ositi!e relations.

0ere she has a more distant relationship with her children to finish withF #. &ather-daughter relationshi : /rince !s. 0illain. his was far more oppressive. Since she was small, she felt negative messages from her father. She had a strong desire to be approved by her father because she perceived some !ind of re=ection while she was a child. +s +nne became more attractive in her adolescence, her fathers attitude towards her changed, so that went through a process of contradiction on the one hand she was re=ected on the other she was conscious of her physical attraction. 4n addition, this was a dangerous situation with her father. herefore, there was a distance between the two of them, but according to Sexton, poems played dangerous games and what

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was repressed in her conscience came through in her poetry. herefore, her poems are locus of transgression and at the same time the poet has to confront a very powerful figure she hides behind the myth -she uses fairy tales and myths.. $*riar 6ose& starts in a mythical context and evolves towards a personal discourse. he poem is structured in three partsA there is a

prologue where a mature witch is a narrator who presents the reader a modern version of the $Sleeping *eauty&. )ho sets on a trip going bac! to her infancy, then, the second part narrates a transformed version of *rother "rimms $*riar 6ose& story. here

the little girl presents herself as a victim of an incestuous father and in the third part, the epilogue, the narrator that the little girl of the first part and *riar 6ose spea! with one voice. 4n this poem is important to pay attention to the bad and good mother, and the shifting of pronouns in order to achieve distance -she uses $> st& and the $@rd& person.. %. a, &orbidden 1ituals. $,ysters& and $0ow we dance& belong to a series, called $ he death of the fathers&. She wants to due away from them. 4n $,ysters&, we have a ritual of initiationA there are metaphors with sexual connotations. in these poems. he sensualG sexual boundaries are trapped

he father has a privileged positionA he has the

power on the patriarchal society. $0ow we dance& is a family celebration and there is a =uxtaposition of past and present, which

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are lin! with past and future. 4n this poem there are forbidden elements because what we find is the taboo of incest. $9riends& and $*egat&, Sexton articulates a discourse against a dubious paternity. he daughter has a repulsive reaction and the suspicion that appears in $9riends& is transmitted into certainty in $*egat&. here is an oedipal triangle, the childA the father was a

liar, and the mother who is a fraud. $ hat monster of a doubt&. <<< 'oubt about her identity. )hat we find in these poems is transgress fusion, which develops in guilty confusion. ,ne of Sextons final poems $'ivorce F& which seems to be a farewell to her father and his 9reudian issues.

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