parted e dulce

8/13/2019 Parted e Dulce

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Curso Doctorado Literatura Norteamericana

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Parte de Dulce Sylvia Plath and AnneSexton: From Silence to

Subversin

Martes8-11-05

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. owever, 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 thcentury 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 ohn ansom.

+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 2ndhalf of the 20thcentury 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


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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. his happened in the )+S3 -)hite

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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 he 1uest for autonomous self 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


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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


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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

other. he boundaries of their personalities are open, fluid.

hey are mar!ed by a desire of connection more than

separation. here is mutuality continuity, identification and

physical touch. his contact will affect the way women write

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

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