Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath
While drawing on mythology and a literary history that associated women with death as well as creativity, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath experimented with binary oppositions such as masculine/feminine, composition/decomposition, and death/(re)birth. They gained inspiration from the same source, th...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
AUC Knowledge Fountain
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613422800076800 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Ibrahim, Noha |
| author_browse | Ibrahim, Noha |
| author_facet | Ibrahim, Noha |
| author_sort | Ibrahim, Noha |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | While drawing on mythology and a literary history that associated women with death as well as creativity, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath experimented with binary oppositions such as masculine/feminine, composition/decomposition, and death/(re)birth. They gained inspiration from the same source, the dead muse, but how do they transform traditions that derive from classical and medieval literary precedent, perhaps in ways that are inherently critical of patriarchal modes of gender dynamics? Why is Poe fixated on a feminine dead muse while Plath is inspired by what she calls her “father-sea-god muse”? How do both authors represent the female body, and how do they link it to death and rebirth? This thesis centralizes the dead muse as a literary and cultural symbol through close readings of Poe and Plath that examine selected poems and key prose statements that enable their creative work to be viewed in sociosexual terms as an adventure of writing, the imagination and the human body. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3120 |
| institution | American University in Cairo (Egypt) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:35:54.296Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| publisherStr | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| spelling | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3120 The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath Ibrahim, Noha While drawing on mythology and a literary history that associated women with death as well as creativity, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath experimented with binary oppositions such as masculine/feminine, composition/decomposition, and death/(re)birth. They gained inspiration from the same source, the dead muse, but how do they transform traditions that derive from classical and medieval literary precedent, perhaps in ways that are inherently critical of patriarchal modes of gender dynamics? Why is Poe fixated on a feminine dead muse while Plath is inspired by what she calls her “father-sea-god muse”? How do both authors represent the female body, and how do they link it to death and rebirth? This thesis centralizes the dead muse as a literary and cultural symbol through close readings of Poe and Plath that examine selected poems and key prose statements that enable their creative work to be viewed in sociosexual terms as an adventure of writing, the imagination and the human body. 2023-06-15T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2091 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3120/viewcontent/Noha_Ibrahim_final_MA_thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Death Rebirth Body Feminine Muse Bereavement Writing Female Body Representation Inspiration American Literature Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Comparative Literature Literature in English, North America Modern Literature Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Rhetoric and Composition Theory and Criticism |
| spellingShingle | Death Rebirth Body Feminine Muse Bereavement Writing Female Body Representation Inspiration American Literature Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Comparative Literature Literature in English, North America Modern Literature Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Rhetoric and Composition Theory and Criticism Ibrahim, Noha The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title | The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title_full | The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title_fullStr | The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title_short | The Death and Rebirth of the Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath |
| title_sort | death and rebirth of the feminine muse edgar allan poe and sylvia plath |
| topic | Death Rebirth Body Feminine Muse Bereavement Writing Female Body Representation Inspiration American Literature Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Comparative Literature Literature in English, North America Modern Literature Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Rhetoric and Composition Theory and Criticism |
| url | https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2091 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3120/viewcontent/Noha_Ibrahim_final_MA_thesis.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ibrahimnoha thedeathandrebirthofthefemininemuseedgarallanpoeandsylviaplath AT ibrahimnoha deathandrebirthofthefemininemuseedgarallanpoeandsylviaplath |