Beyond Consolation : Death, Sexuality, and the Changing Shapes of Elegy / Melissa F. Zeiger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zeiger, Melissa F., author.

Series:

Reading Women Writing Series

Reading Women Writing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orpheus (Greek mythological character)--In literature.

Sex in literature.

Death in literature.

Elegiac poetry--History and criticism.

Elegiac poetry.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 195 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Using as her starting point the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Melissa F. Zeiger examines modern transformations of poetic elegy, particularly as they reflect historical changes in the politics of gender and sexuality. Although her focus is primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry, the scope of her investigation is grand: from John Milton's "Lycidas" to very recently written AIDS and breast cancer elegies. Milton epitomized the traditional use of the Orpheus myth as an illustration of the female threat to masculine poetic prowess, focused on the beleaguered Orpheus. Zeiger documents the gradual inclusion of Eurydice, from the elegies of Algernon Charles Swinburne through the work of Thomas Hardy and John Berryman, re-examining the role of Eurydice, and the feminine more generally, in poetic production. Zeiger then considers women poets who challenge the assumptions of elegies written by men, sometimes identifying themselves with Eurydice. Among these poets are H.D., Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anne Sexton, and Elizabeth Bishop. Zeiger concludes with a discussion of elegies for victims of current plagues, explaining how poets mourning those lost to AIDS and breast cancer rewrite elegy in ways less repressive, sacrificial, or punitive than those of the Orphean tradition. Among the poets discussed are Essex Hemphill, Thom Gunn, Mark Doty, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Marilyn Hacker.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Unwriting Orpheus: Swinburne's "Ave atque Vale" and the "New" Elegy

2. "Woman Much Missed": Writing Eurydice in Hardy's Poems of 1912-13

3. The Fading of Orpheus: Women's Elegies

4. Avatars of Eurydice: John Berryman's Dream Songs

5. Beyond Mourning and Melancholia: AIDS Elegies

6. Against Elegies: Women's Breast Cancer Poems

Afterword: Why Elegies?

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [169]-187) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

1-5017-1133-4

OCLC:

1080551275