At the heart of poetic tradition is a figure of abandonment, a woman forsaken and out of control. She appears in writings ancient and modern, in the East and the West, in high art and popular culture produced by women and by men. What accounts for her perennial fascination? What is her function—in poems and for writers? Lawrence Lipking suggests many possibilities. In this figure he finds a partial record of women's experience, an instrument for the expression of religious love and yearning, a voice for psychological fears, and, finally, a model for the poet. Abandoned women inspire new ways of reading poems and poetic tradition.
| ISBN: | 9780226484549 |
| Publication date: | 15th September 1988 |
| Author: | Lawrence Northwestern University Lipking |
| Publisher: | University of Chicago Press an imprint of The University of Chicago Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 327 pages |
| Series: | Women in Culture & Society Series WCS |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: general Literary studies: poetry and poets Gender studies: women and girls |