Representations of Women in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Man of Law’s Tale” and “Tale of Melibee”

This thesis project discusses stereotypical representations of women as it explores Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Understanding the Middle Ages and its treatment of women in society and art, the first section explores the idea of clergy and aristocracy as dominant groups responsible for the creation of the feminine ideal and their subsequent subordination even as it presents paradoxical imagery (ex: Eve and Mary). Following chapters are devoted to female protagonists and highlight their representation as empowered in spite of societal constraints. Through a close reading of the text, the project specifically focuses on Custance, the protagonist from “The Man of Law\u27s Tale,” and Prudence, from “The Tale of Melibee.” Although Custance and Prudence adhere to medieval cultural ideals of femininity, it further notes their central position in the narratives discussed, and presents an argument for the active and heroic nature of these women in Chaucer’s poetic tales. The project concludes that Chaucer’s female characters subvert traditional imagery, transcend stereotypical representations, and create an image of medieval women as independent subjects. (Artwork from the time period is included throughout the project as part of the discussion of gendered representation.

Portrait of the Artist as Hermes

Within the framework of Jungian archetypal psychology and utilizing Karl Kerényi's theories on Hermes and the archetypal symbolism of mother and daughter, this book combines the mythopoeic and psychoanalytical approaches in interpreting Krull's development as both a mythic identification with Hermes and an odyssey into the archaic depths of the Collective Unconscious. As a counterpart to the thematic line of investigation, detailed stylistic analyses aim at pointing out significant correspondences between form and content

Identity on the Threshold: The Myth of Persephone in Italian American Women’s Memoirs

This dissertation analyses the recurrent theme of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone in third-generation Italian American women’s memoirs. I argue that these women appropriate their Italian ethnic roots through a creative and compelling rereading and reworking of the myth of Demeter and Persephone. To develop my argument, I explore the interlacing of myth and memory in three contemporary Italian American memoirs: No Pictures in my Grave: A Spiritual Journey in Sicily (1992), The Skin between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging (2006), and The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America (2011), respectively written by Susan Caperna Lloyd, Kym Ragusa, and Joanna Clapps Herman. These texts belong to the hybrid genre of memoir; a genre that combines imagination with individual and collective memory. Through the genre of memoir and the practice of self-writing, these authors turn to the myth as a source for female empowerment and ethnic assertion. The myth of Persephone in these Italian American women’s memoirs epitomizes the archetype of origin so it becomes a treasure to be sought and rediscovered. These texts offer insightful perspective on myth while also posing questions of difference, gender, race, ethnicity, self-representation, and post-modern identity. Through an eclectic approach, including literary criticism, cultural studies, and anthropology, I argue that these three memoirs show how the authors’ physical and/or psychological journeys between Italy and America have helped them to overcome the anxieties experienced in relation to their Italian American hybrid identity. This thesis explores the themes of liminality, ethnicity, race, and hybridity to understand how the Persephone myth is used by the authors to articulate their condition as dwellers of the limen, and to help them come to terms with the trauma of loss, separation, and reunion

Portrait of the Artist as Hermes

Within the framework of Jungian archetypal psychology and utilizing Karl Kerényi's theories on Hermes and the archetypal symbolism of mother and daughter, this book combines the mythopoeic and psychoanalytical approaches in interpreting Krull's development as both a mythic identification with Hermes and an odyssey into the archaic depths of the Collective Unconscious. As a counterpart to the thematic line of investigation, detailed stylistic analyses aim at pointing out significant correspondences between form and content

Language\u27s bliss of unfolding in and through history, autobiography and myth: The poetry of Rita Dove

This dissertation focuses on the first five books of poetry published by the American poet Rita Dove: The Yellow House on the Corner (1980), Museum (1983), Thomas and Beulah (1986; awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987), Grace Notes (1989), and Mother Love (1995). It situates her work within the whole field of American poetic discourse. Dove\u27s relationship to myriad strands of American ars poetica traditions arises out of patterns of amplification and negotiation worked out in Dove\u27s poetry in relation to a wide range of such traditions. Thus, the study\u27s methodology proceeds from the poet T. S. Eliot\u27s dictum that poets\u27 writing on poetry---their ars poetica statement in prose---have a special and permanent value for readers of poetry. The primary sources of the study, beyond Dove\u27s work itself and her interviews and prose writings on poetry, are the poetry and ars poetica prose writings of other American poets (past and present) as well as other poets, such as Eliot, and the German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. Because Dove is black and female, much has been made of her position within African American and American women\u27s poetic traditions. Attention is paid to this phenomenon, and to the scholarship done in those fields, as well as in American poetry generally. More attention is paid the formal poetic practices enacted in the poems of this poet who proclaims, Language is everything, and says that it is the bliss of unfolding in and through language that engages her most as poet. This study also explores how Dove\u27s following the bliss of unfolding enacts exploration of three central themes present throughout all of her books---history, autobiography, and myth. The inextricable enmeshment of questions of poetry\u27s proper functions and imperatives socially and culturally, and of its aesthetic and formal properties, in Dove\u27s poetry, is a time-honored, solidly American ars poetica, first expressed in the early American poets Bradstreet and Whitman. The conclusion of the dissertation is that Rita Dove---who herself proclaims time and again her resistance to categorization as other than poet in her relationship to her work---is a quintessential American poet

Aletheia: The Orphic Ouroboros

This thesis shows how The Orphic Hymns function as a katábasis, a descent to the underworld, representing a process of becoming and psychological rebirth. I begin with the Greek concept of sparagmόs, a dismemberment or deconstruction, as a necessary precursor in that it emphasises at once both primordial unity and yet also the incipient tensions within the Orphic initiates on this path to katabasis. The argument herein extends beyond literary explication to consider how the Orphics sought to enact this process in Greek society itself. The thesis then establishes the connections between the Hymns and the thinking of Nietzsche and Jung. Each writer drew influences from Orphism, which influenced modern thinkers in turn. I argue that the dynamic between key Orphic pairs, such as Orpheus and Eurydike, or Persephone and Demeter, reflects aspects of the psychosocial process of individuation, that is, from darkness to light, or from fractured to psychological wholeness. Finally, this thesis demonstrates how the poetry of Rilke and H.D. functions as an Orphic katabasis. Both the Hymns and these early twentieth century poets (Rilke in “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes” and H.D. in “Eurydice”) treat Eurydike as an aspect of Persephone, reclaiming Eurydike as a goddess of rebirth. I argue that their purpose is to resist hegemonic and authoritarian violence in their respective contexts

Reshaping Mirrors: Mothers and Daughters in Contemporary Irish and Galician Women’s Poetry

Among the great plurality and variety of women`s voices that can be heard both in Irish and Galician women¿s poetry, I have focused my attention on those with whom I identify, because some of them belong to a generation of women who were brought up in a patriarchal-dictatorial society and have had to struggle hard to get rid of all the oppressive ideological structures that subdued women¿s lives, so that they could find their way into a professional career without renouncing to motherhood

How do you do Your Rage? : A Qualitative Investigation Into Contemporary Women\u27s Experience of Their Rage

Feminist researchers investigate women’s lives. This project is looking at a tiny thread embedded in a small section in the huge fabric of women\u27s lives. The section is women’s capacity for violence, and the thread within it is women’s rage. This is a qualitative study of contemporary women experiencing and expressing their anger and rage. Discussions of violence within feminist literature have been largely restricted to accounts of male violence against women and children, and may have inadvertently endorsed the mainstream construction of femininity, which perceives rage in women to be an inappropriate emotion. In this project, I argue that contemporary women do indeed experience anger and rage, and that these emotions need to be honoured and validated. The questions I seek to answer are about contemporary women’s expression of these emotions. Do they express rage often, or sometimes, or never, or just keep it inside, relegating it to the shadow? Do they direct their rage towards others, or do they direct it towards themselves? Do they do both? Does rage vary over a lifetime? Is women’s rage linked to women’s oppression? How do contemporary women experience oppression? Do they have bodily symptoms associated with rage? Is there indeed a link between women· s rage and women’s violence? Is there frequently a link between women’s rage and violence against women? Is an outburst of rage spontaneous, or is it the culmination of a slow, smouldering process? Finally, are there ways of expressing rage creatively? Seeking answers to these questions, the study explores similarities and differences in the ways a small number of women in the community encounter their rage. The case stories of six women who participated in in-depth, semi-structured Interviews, together with a review of relevant literature, form the basis for this project. It is hoped it will raise awareness of women\u27s angry and violent feelings and that we might call their dark side, and ultimately, contribute to an exploration of the much larger field of women\u27s violence. This may in tum enable women to accept their own capacity for violent behaviour. In addition, this small sample illustrating that women with similar backgrounds do not necessarily share similar experiences of rage aims to contribute to current feminist theoretical debates about difference

Portrait of the Artist as Hermes: A Study of Myth and Psychology in Thomas Mann's Felix Krull

Within the framework of Jungian archetypal psychology and utilizing Karl Kerényi's theories on Hermes and the archetypal symbolism of mother and daughter, this book combines the mythopoeic and psychoanalytical approaches in interpreting Krull's development as both a mythic identification with Hermes and an odyssey into the archaic depths of the Collective Unconscious. As a counterpart to the thematic line of investigation, detailed stylistic analyses aim at pointing out significant correspondences between form and content