Foldings and Unfoldings: The Paradox of Birth in Mina Loy’s “Parturition” (1914)
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Although largely forgotten until recently, Mina Loy was an artist fully engaged with the charged vortex of modernism. Both her life and writings go through dynamic twists and turns, displaying an acute awareness of a self that ceaselessly disintegrates and recreates itself, especially in terms of sex and gender. In particular, “Parturition” (1914) is one of the earliest poems to investigate the physiological and psychological experience of labor and giving birth, while questioning the singularity of self. The themes of birth and creation appear profusely throughout the history of literature, but the bodily and intellectual engagement with birth in “Parturition” had not been present in the literary scene before. The pain of labor, dilations, and excretions during childbirth are far removed from the sacred image of birth upheld in sociocultural or religious representations of it. Working against such traditional representations, Loy’s “Parturition” redefines labor and birth, in relation to the notion of a pluralized “I.” Through a close reading of “Parturition,” I argue that Loy imagines a plural “I” in contrast to a singular “I” as the center of perception, through which she explores the fluctuating contours of self during pregnancy and childbirth. Through the Deleuzean idea of the fold, I argue that Loy summons a self that is a site of ceaseless differentiation, always in flux and endlessly folding and unfolding its self.
Abstract
Although largely forgotten until recently, Mina Loy was an artist fully engaged with the charged vortex of modernism. Both her life and writings go through dynamic twists and turns, displaying an acute awareness of a self that ceaselessly disintegrates and recreates itself, especially in terms of sex and gender. In particular, “Parturition” (1914) is one of the earliest poems to investigate the physiological and psychological experience of labor and giving birth, while questioning the singularity of self. The themes of birth and creation appear profusely throughout the history of literature, but the bodily and intellectual engagement with birth in “Parturition” had not been present in the literary scene before. The pain of labor, dilations, and excretions during childbirth are far removed from the sacred image of birth upheld in sociocultural or religious representations of it. Working against such traditional representations, Loy’s “Parturition” redefines labor and birth, in relation to the notion of a pluralized “I.” Through a close reading of “Parturition,” I argue that Loy imagines a plural “I” in contrast to a singular “I” as the center of perception, through which she explores the fluctuating contours of self during pregnancy and childbirth. Through the Deleuzean idea of the fold, I argue that Loy summons a self that is a site of ceaseless differentiation, always in flux and endlessly folding and unfolding its self.
참고문헌 (19)
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