THE POWER STRUCTURES OF EROTIC IMAGINATION IN THE POETRY OF APHRA BEHN AND JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER
THE POWER STRUCTURES OF EROTIC IMAGINATION IN THE POETRY OF APHRA BEHN AND JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER

Summary/Abstract: The Power Structures of Erotic Imagination in the Poetry of Aphra Behn and John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. The licentious poems of Aphra Behn and John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester follow the recognisable pattern of the libertine behaviour specific to the period of the English Restoration. The ways in which they use various hypostases of the sexual body present themselves as strategies of examining (either reinforcing, or disrupting) the patriarchal domination over the sphere of physical intimacy. Therefore, this paper undertakes the task of looking into the balance of power and the dynamics of gender relations in their poetry, by analysing the representations of erotic imagination in poems which explore similar sexual hypostases, from two different, gender-specific perspectives.

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