Demeter and the Revision of Classical Myth: Dream Mothers and Everyday Mothers in Contemporary English Poetry
Abstract
In this work I investigate the presence of the figure of Demeter in contemporary English poetry. The main objective is to gain an understanding of how the myth of Persephone contributes to creating different representations of the mother. Firstly, I study the classical sources that attach the utmost importance to the mother-daughter bond, and whose description of the mother has made an indelible mark on the Western imagination. Secondly, I analyse four different receptions of the myth (one essay and three poems), which prove to be very representative of the main trends in the representation of Demeter in English poetry written today. Through the study of the reception mechanisms of the classical myth and the representation of Demeter in each example, I identify two differentiated readings of Demeter (either as the dream mother, or as the everyday mother), which refer to two different ways of understanding motherhood. Ultimately, this study demonstrates the classical myth’s capability and relevance to voice the experiences of the mother in different time periods, places, and situations.
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Foley, Helen P. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Himno homérico a Deméter. Trad. y ed. José B. Torres Guerra. Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 2001.
Ovidio. Metamorfosis. Trad. y ed. Consuelo Álvarez y Rosa María Iglesias. Madrid: Cátedra, 2003.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Ed., trad. y coment. Nicholas J. Richardson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Boland, Eavan. In a Time of Violence. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Boland, Eavan. En un tiempo de violencia. Trad. y ed. Pilar Salamanca. Madrid: Ediciones Hiperión, 1997.
Doolittle, Hilda. Collected Poems 1914-1944. Nueva York: New Directions, 1983.
Ostriker, Alicia. The Book of Seventy. Pensilvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.
Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976.
Rich, Adrienne. Nacemos de mujer: la maternidad como experiencia e institución. Trad. y ed. Ana Becciu. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños, 2019.
Bachofen, Johan Jacob. El matriarcado: una investigación sobre la ginecocracia en el mundo antiguo según su naturaleza religiosa y jurídica. Trad. María del Mar Llinares García. Madrid: Akal, 1987.
Boulogne, Jacques. Les systèmes mythologiques. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1997.
Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston: Beacon, 1978.
Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough. Nueva York: Start Publishing llc, 2013.
González-Rivas Fernández, Ana. 2022. «From myth to comic: Rayco Pulido’s graphic novel Lamia». Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2022. DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2022.2123017.
Gilbert, Sandra M. y Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
Gubar, Susan. «Mother, Maiden and the Marriage of Death: Women Writers and an Ancient Myth». Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1979, 6:3, pp. 301-315.
Hardwick, Lorna. Reception Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Hernández Piñero, Aránzazu. «Igualdad, diferencia: genealogías feministas». Feminismo/s, 2010, 15, pp. 75-94.
Louis, Margot K. Persephone Rises, 1860-1927: Mythography, Gender, and the Creation of a New Spirituality. Burlington: Ashgate, 2009.
Morales Ortiz, Alicia. «La maternidad y las madres en la tragedia griega». En Calderón Dorda, Esteban Antonio y Alicia Morales Ortiz (eds.). La madre en la Antigüedad: literatura, sociedad y religión. Madrid: Signifer, 2007, pp. 129-167.
Ostriker, Alicia. «The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking». Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1982, 8:1, pp. 68-90.
Ostriker, Alicia. Writing Like a Woman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
Ostriker, Alicia. Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.
Rich, Adrienne. «When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision». College English, 1972, 34:1, pp. 18-30.
Salcedo González, Cristina. «“At Least I Have the Flowers of Myself”: Revisionist Myth-Making in H. D.’s “Eurydice”». Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 2020, 62, pp. 69-89.
Simonis Sampedro, Angie. «La Diosa feminista: el movimiento de espiritualidad de las mujeres durante la Segunda Ola». Feminismo/s, 2012, 20, pp. 25-42.
Himno homérico a Deméter. Trad. y ed. José B. Torres Guerra. Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 2001.
Ovidio. Metamorfosis. Trad. y ed. Consuelo Álvarez y Rosa María Iglesias. Madrid: Cátedra, 2003.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Ed., trad. y coment. Nicholas J. Richardson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Boland, Eavan. In a Time of Violence. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Boland, Eavan. En un tiempo de violencia. Trad. y ed. Pilar Salamanca. Madrid: Ediciones Hiperión, 1997.
Doolittle, Hilda. Collected Poems 1914-1944. Nueva York: New Directions, 1983.
Ostriker, Alicia. The Book of Seventy. Pensilvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.
Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976.
Rich, Adrienne. Nacemos de mujer: la maternidad como experiencia e institución. Trad. y ed. Ana Becciu. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños, 2019.
Bachofen, Johan Jacob. El matriarcado: una investigación sobre la ginecocracia en el mundo antiguo según su naturaleza religiosa y jurídica. Trad. María del Mar Llinares García. Madrid: Akal, 1987.
Boulogne, Jacques. Les systèmes mythologiques. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1997.
Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston: Beacon, 1978.
Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough. Nueva York: Start Publishing llc, 2013.
González-Rivas Fernández, Ana. 2022. «From myth to comic: Rayco Pulido’s graphic novel Lamia». Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2022. DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2022.2123017.
Gilbert, Sandra M. y Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
Gubar, Susan. «Mother, Maiden and the Marriage of Death: Women Writers and an Ancient Myth». Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1979, 6:3, pp. 301-315.
Hardwick, Lorna. Reception Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Hernández Piñero, Aránzazu. «Igualdad, diferencia: genealogías feministas». Feminismo/s, 2010, 15, pp. 75-94.
Louis, Margot K. Persephone Rises, 1860-1927: Mythography, Gender, and the Creation of a New Spirituality. Burlington: Ashgate, 2009.
Morales Ortiz, Alicia. «La maternidad y las madres en la tragedia griega». En Calderón Dorda, Esteban Antonio y Alicia Morales Ortiz (eds.). La madre en la Antigüedad: literatura, sociedad y religión. Madrid: Signifer, 2007, pp. 129-167.
Ostriker, Alicia. «The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking». Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1982, 8:1, pp. 68-90.
Ostriker, Alicia. Writing Like a Woman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
Ostriker, Alicia. Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.
Rich, Adrienne. «When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision». College English, 1972, 34:1, pp. 18-30.
Salcedo González, Cristina. «“At Least I Have the Flowers of Myself”: Revisionist Myth-Making in H. D.’s “Eurydice”». Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 2020, 62, pp. 69-89.
Simonis Sampedro, Angie. «La Diosa feminista: el movimiento de espiritualidad de las mujeres durante la Segunda Ola». Feminismo/s, 2012, 20, pp. 25-42.
Demeter and the Revision of Classical Myth: Dream Mothers and Everyday Mothers in Contemporary English Poetry. (2022). 1616: Anuario de Literatura Comparada, 12, 203-226. https://doi.org/10.14201/1616202212203226
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