The Lesbian Muse and Poetic Identity, 1889–1930

Download or read book The Lesbian Muse and Poetic Identity, 1889–1930 written by Sarah Parker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history the poetic muse has tended to be (a passive) female and the poet male. This dynamic caused problems for late Victorian and twentieth-century women poets; how could the muse be reclaimed and moved on from the passive role of old? Parker looks at fin-de-siècle and modernist lyric poets to investigate how they overcame these challenges and identifies three key strategies: the reconfiguring of the muse as a contemporary instead of a historical/mythological figure; the muse as a male figure; and an interchangeable poet/muse relationship, granting agency to both.