The Kaleidoscopic Universe in Mina Loy’s “Parturition”
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
Scholarly interpretations of Mina Loy often analyze her poetry as products of her eugenicist beliefs. Her poem “Parturition” is frequently paired with her unpublished polemic “Feminist Manifesto,” which emphasizes the concept of a racially superior mother and her offspring. However, I argue that Loy’s “Parturition” disrupts the racism and classism at the core of eugenics, rather than embracing the British colonial impulse. The power to modify eugenicist othering lies in her ever-evolving perspective in the poem. Loy’s kaleidoscopic poetics weave through early 20th-century feminist campaigns, largely represented by social purists and liberal moralists, offering a multifaceted lens that undermines dichotomous binaries regarding female sexuality, marriage, and legal sovereignty. “Parturition” exemplifies this intervention by embracing a spectrum of perspectives and experiences of maternity. Through vivid and visceral depictions of the childbirth experience, rendered through her feminine language use, Loy disrupts and challenges the cultural (de)valuation of motherhood. She highlights the physicality of the sexual, profane maternal body as an organ of reproduction and parodies the myth of the Virgin Mary to demystify the culturally assigned sanctity of maternity. The poem, thus, advocates for an inclusive and fluid understanding of maternity that transcends racial and class boundaries. “Parturition” presents childbirth not as a monolithic event but as a kaleidoscopic interplay of emotions, sensations, and identities through a mother subject’s conscious unfolding. It reframes maternity as a dynamic and evolving concept. In doing so, Loy’s poetics critically dialogue with contemporary feminist discourse, offering a more expansive and inclusive representation of female experiences.
Abstract
Scholarly interpretations of Mina Loy often analyze her poetry as products of her eugenicist beliefs. Her poem “Parturition” is frequently paired with her unpublished polemic “Feminist Manifesto,” which emphasizes the concept of a racially superior mother and her offspring. However, I argue that Loy’s “Parturition” disrupts the racism and classism at the core of eugenics, rather than embracing the British colonial impulse. The power to modify eugenicist othering lies in her ever-evolving perspective in the poem. Loy’s kaleidoscopic poetics weave through early 20th-century feminist campaigns, largely represented by social purists and liberal moralists, offering a multifaceted lens that undermines dichotomous binaries regarding female sexuality, marriage, and legal sovereignty. “Parturition” exemplifies this intervention by embracing a spectrum of perspectives and experiences of maternity. Through vivid and visceral depictions of the childbirth experience, rendered through her feminine language use, Loy disrupts and challenges the cultural (de)valuation of motherhood. She highlights the physicality of the sexual, profane maternal body as an organ of reproduction and parodies the myth of the Virgin Mary to demystify the culturally assigned sanctity of maternity. The poem, thus, advocates for an inclusive and fluid understanding of maternity that transcends racial and class boundaries. “Parturition” presents childbirth not as a monolithic event but as a kaleidoscopic interplay of emotions, sensations, and identities through a mother subject’s conscious unfolding. It reframes maternity as a dynamic and evolving concept. In doing so, Loy’s poetics critically dialogue with contemporary feminist discourse, offering a more expansive and inclusive representation of female experiences.
참고문헌 (26)
- Browne, Stella, "A New World for Women: Stella Browne—Socialist Feminist", pp.91~105 (1977), Pluto P
- Browne, Stella, "Who Are the ‘Normal’?", The Freewoman, 1(16), pp.312~313 (1912)
- Burke, Carolyn, "Becoming Modern : The Life of Mina Loy" (1996), Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Choi, Hyonbin, "Foldings and Unfoldings : The Paradox of Birth in Mina Loy’s ‘Parturition’(1914)", Feminist Studies in English Literature, 30(3), pp.117~142 (2022)
- Choi, Taesook, "Concealing and Revealing Seriousness : Fantasy and Female Sexuality in Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’", English Language and Literature, 65(4), pp.667~682 (2019)
- Conover, Roger L., "The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems by Mina Loy", pp.169~234 (1996), Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Duplessis, Rachel Blau, "Mina Loy: Woman and Poet", pp.45~74 (1998), National Poetry Foundation
- Galton, Francis, "Inquiries into Human Faculty" (1883), Macmillan
- Goody, Alex, "Modernist Articulations: A Cultural Study of Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy and Gertrude Stein" (2007), Palgrave Macmillan
- Hall, Lesley A, "‘I Have Never Met the Normal Woman’ : Stella Browne and the Politics of Womanhood", Women’s History Review, 6(2), pp.157~182 (1997)
- Hamilton, Cicely, "Marriage as a Trade" (1909), Moffat, Yard
- Linett, Maren, "All Winged Their Supermen : Mina Loy, Olive Moore, and the Transhumanist Imagination", ELH, 90(4), pp.1159~1186 (2023)
- Loy, Mina, "The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy", pp.153~156 (1996), Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Loy, Mina, "The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy", pp.4~8 (1914), Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Lyon, Janet, "Manifestoes : Provocations of the Modern" (1999), Cornell UP
- Marsden, Dora, "Interpretations of Sex", The Freewoman, 2(24), pp.461~462 (1912)
- Marsden, Dora, "The Poor and the Rich", The Freewoman, 2(36), pp.181~183 (1912)
- Mort, Frank, "Dangerous Sexualities: Medico-Moral Politics in England since 1830" (2000), Routledge
- Oliver, Kathlyn, "Asceticism and Passion", The Freewoman, 1(13), pp.252~ (1912)
- Pankhurst, Christabel, "Suffrage and the Pankhursts", pp.187~240 (2001), Routledge
- Pilsch, Andrew, "Reading Modernism with Machines: Digital Humanities and Modernist Literature", pp.243~264 (2016), Palgrave Macmillan
- Prescott, Tara, "Moths and Mothers : Mina Loy’s ‘Parturition’", Women’s Studies, 39(3), pp.194~214 (2010)
- Ramazani, Jahan, "A Transnational Poetics" (2009), U of Chicago P
- Re-Bartlett, Lucy, "Sex and Sanctity" (1912), Longmans, Green And Co
- Sanger, Margaret, "Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916-1945", pp.99~134 (1994), Cornell UP
- Scuriatti, Laura, "Transnational Modernist Encounters in the Provinces : Lacerba, Mina Loy and International Debates on Sexual Morality in Florence", Forum for Modern Language Studies, 53(3), pp.303~313 (2017)