로버트 로월의 「스컹크의 시간」에 나타난 실존적 갈등과 극복

Abstract

This paper examines how Robert Lowell escaped from the desperate frustration and emotional turmoil which resulted from both World War 1 and World War 2. This study includes the question as to what Lowell wanted to tell in his confessional poetry and who he wanted to tell. Life Studies was written as a kind of therapy to overcome his early trauma, as well as the social problems contemporary Americans and Lowell were confronted with. In this study, the conflicts which Lowell fought against will be discussed in the consideration of his philosophical view. Viewed as a whole, especially Lowell’s “Skunk Hour”, one poem of Life Studies deals with how his comtemporary Americans as well as the poet himself could overcome the frustrating situation which almost led them to ‘death’. It goes without saying that Lowell found out his way to head for through “Skunk Hour”, which functions as a conclusional poem in Life Studies. Finally, Lowell recharged himself with the vitality of a nocturnal animal, ‘skunk’. It also implies the restoration of American literature by the influence of American women writers, Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop.