“BEHIND OUR LULLABIES”: FEMININE MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S POETRY
“BEHIND OUR LULLABIES”: FEMININE MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S POETRY

Summary/Abstract: In the Western canon, poetry and mythology have always been connected, and poets have often looked to myths in an attempt to understand humanity. The phallogocentric patriarchy has, however, marginalised femininity, thus creating an imbalanced, androcentric cultural milieu. In the second half of the twentieth century, with the rise of feminism and the postmodern rejection of grand narratives, many women poets have sought to rectify this situation and have produced a plethora of works that address this issue. This paper explores this idea by using the mythological figure of Penelope as an example of a harmful means of constructing femininity. It also focuses on the postmodern notion of the demarginalisation of the previously voiceless through an analysis of Carol Ann Duffy’s collection The World’s Wife. In a broader sense, it examines how contemporary women’s poetry in English reappropriates the mythological feminine.

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