Artikel
Gender, body, and feminine performance : Edna St. Vincent Millay's impact on Anne Sexton
Verfasst von:
Michailidou, Artemis
in:
Empirical interrogations: gender, race and class
Basingstoke [u.a.]:
2004
,
117 - 140 S.
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Weitere Informationen
Einrichtung: | Ariadne | Wien |
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Verfasst von: | Michailidou, Artemis |
In: | Empirical interrogations: gender, race and class |
Jahr: | 2004 |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Beschreibung: | |
This paper will discuss Edna Miliay's influence on Anne Sexton, with particular reference to issues such as gender politics, femininity, performativity, and the female body. Through close comparative readings of some of the two women's most representative poems, I analyze, firstly, how Miliay's outspokenness and daring self-presentation as a woman writer facilitated Sexton's handling of material that was previously considered unacceptable for poetry and, secondly, how Sexton expanded the scope of women's writing in a manner that paid tribute to the earlier poet's innovation. My paper maintains that Miliay's repeated attempts to explore gender and interrogate the concept of 'authentic' femininity anticipated Sexton's overtly feminist works. Ultimately, I am arguing that, despite the literary climate of the 1960s (which urged the rejection of poets like Millay) and despite her own ambiguous feelings for the earlier poet, Sexton eventually recovered Millay as an important literary predecessor for her generation, consistently imitated her artistic posturing, performance strategies, and self-presentation, and finally acknowledged her unique contribution to women's writing. | |
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