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Reviving Kalliope: Four North American Women and the Epic

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Reviving Kalliope: Four North American Women and the Epic REVIVING KALLIOPE: FOUR NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE EPIC TRADITION by BRITTA SPANN A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department ofEnglish and the Graduate School ofthe University ofOregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy September 2009 11 University of Oregon Graduate School Confirmation of Approval and Acceptance of Dissertation prepared by: Britta Spann Title: "Reviving Kalliope: Four Nort~ American Woman and the Epic Tradition" This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Doctor ofPhilosophy degree in the Department ofEnglish by: Karen Ford, Chairperson, English Paul Peppis, Member, English Steven Shankman, Member, English P. Lowell Bowditch, Outside Member, Classics and Richard Linton, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean ofthe Graduate School for the University of Oregon. September 5, 2009 Original approval signatures are on file with the Graduate School and the University of Oregon Libraries. 11l © 2009 Britta Leigh Spann IV An Abstract ofthe Dissertation of Britta Leigh Spann for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy in the Department ofEnglish to be taken September 2009 Title: REVIVING KALLIOPE: FOUR NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE EPIC TRADITION Approved: ------: _ Dr. Karen J. Ford In English literary studies, classical epic poetry is typically regarded as a masculinist genre that imparts and reinforces the values ofdominant culture. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, after all, were written by men, feature male heroes, and recount the violent events that gave rise to the misogynistic societies ofancient Greece and Rome. Yet, in the twentieth century, women poets have found inspiration for their feminist projects in these ostensibly masculinist poems. The four poets in this study, for example, have drawn from the work ofHomer and Virgil to criticize the ways that conventional cunceptions ofgender identity have impaired b0th men and women. One might expect, and indeed, most critics argue, that women like RD., Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Gluck, and Anne Carson invoke their classical predecessors only to reject them and the repressive values that they represent. Close readings ofthese poets' work, however, demonstrate that, far from dismissing the ancient poems, Helen in Egypt, Annie Allen, v Meadowlands, and Autobiography ofRed are deeply invested in them, finding in them models for their own social critiques. The work ofthese four poets emphasizes that the classical epics are not one­ dimensional celebrations ofviolence and traditional masculinity. Indeed, the work of Horner and Virgil expresses anxiety about the misogynistic values ofthe heroic code to which its warriors adhere, and it urges that war and violence are antithetical to civilized society. In examining the ways that modem women poets have drawn from these facets ofthe ancient works to condemn the sexism, racism, and heterocentrism ofcontemporary culture, my dissertation seeks to challenge the characterization ofclassical epic that prevails in English literary studies and to assert the necessity ofunderstanding the complexity ufthe ancient texts that inspire modem poets. Taking an intertextual approach, I hope to show that close readings ofthe classical epics facilitate our understanding ofhow and why modem women have engaged the work oftheir ancient predecessors and that this knowledge, in tum, emphasizes that the epic genre is more complex than we have recognized and that its tradition still flourishes. VI CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Britta Leigh Spann PLACE OF BIRTH: Grapevine, Texas DATE OF BIRTH: April 19, 1979 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University ofOregon, Eugene, OR University ofKentucky, Lexington, KY Baylor University, Waco, TX DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor ofPhilosophy in English, 2009, University ofOregon Master ofArts in Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, 2003, University ofKentucky Bachelor ofArts in University Scholars, Baylor University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: The Classical Tradition Poetry and Poetics Twentieth-Century American Literature PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Assistant Director ofthe Composition Program, University ofOregon, 2008-09 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University ofOregon, 2003-09 Teaching Assistant, University ofKentucky, 2001-03 GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS: Armistead Maupin Scholarship, Fund ofEquity Foundation, 2008 Outstanding Teacher ofComposition Award, University ofOregon, 2008 Vll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS lowe a debt ofgratitude to my dissertation director, Professor Karen Ford, whose guidance and mentorship have been indispensable, not only during this project but throughout my graduate school career. I thank her for the careful attention she has paid to my work and for her unflagging support. Working with her has truly been a pleasure. I also thank the other members ofmy defense committee, Professors P. Lowell Bowditch, Paul Peppis, and Steven Shankman, for their careful reading ofthis dissertation and for their insightful feedback. Their recommendations will be invaluable as I expand this project. I cannot express my appreciation enough to my family, friends, and colleagues who have supported and encouraged me. I could not have completed this dissertation without them. I would especially like to thank Rachel Hanan, whose advice and friendship have been priceless throughout my time at the University ofOregon. I especially appreciate her feedback on my first chapter and assistance with my bibliography. Special thanks are also due to Corbett Upton for his support and friendship. Our many conversations have been a source ofboth pleasure and inspiration to me and were invaluable as I formulated and articulated my ideas. Finally, I express my deepest and most sincere appreciation to my partner, Nova Rietmann, whose love, patience, support, and companionship sustain me. Vlll Dedicated to the memory ofProfessor Ann Vardaman Miller IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. REVIVING KALLIOPE ;........................... 1 Notes................................................................................................................. 22 II. H.D.'s HELEN INEGYPT: EPIC AS PALIMPSEST.......................................... 24 Notes................................................................................................................. 93 III. GWENDOLYN BROOKS' ANNIEALLEN: EPIC AS PROTEST..................... 97 Notes 162 IV. LOUISE GLOCK'S MEADOWLANDS: EPIC AS TRAGIC OPERA 171 Notes :..;..................... 234 V. DOMESTICATING THE EPIC 237 BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 1 CHAPTER I REVIVING KALLIOPE The epic is the most lofty and lengthy ofthe conventional poetic forms; in Greek mythology, it is governed by Kalliope, the goddess ofeloquence and the foremost ofthe nine Muses. At the same time, and not coincidentally, the epic is traditionally regarded as a masculinist form, written by male poets to elaborate the exploits ofheroic men. These exploits are typically violent feats ofmilitary prowess that the hero performs to improve his reputation, and the fate ofa nation or a people usually hangs in the balance: Aeneas must overcome terrible hardships on his journey to Italy and defeat Turnus in battle to found the city ofRome, the fate ofthe Greek and Trojan peoples hinges on the outcome ofAchilles' great battle with Hektor, and Odysseus must endure the wrath of Poseidon in order to return home and slaughter the suitors driving his household into ruin, thus reclaiming his position as the rightful leader ofthe Ithakans. Yet the stories recounted in ancient Greek and Roman epics often look quite different from a female perspective: in the process offounding the future city ofRome, Aeneas loses his wife and inadvertently causes Dido's suicide; while Hector eams a glorious reputation by dying in battle with Achilles, his wife Andromache and the rest ofthe Trojan women are taken as slaves and concubines when Troy falls to the Greeks. Even the Greek women do not fare well in epic though their husbands win the Trojan War: Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to gain favorable winds for his fleet, setting offa chain ofevents that 2 kills his entire family; Helen is offered to Paris by Aphrodite as a bribe then universally scorned as a perfidious wife and the cause ofthe Trojan war when he takes her; Penelope spends much ofthe Odyssey in a difficult and dangerous position, beset by suitors while unsure ofher husband's fate. The epic tradition in the English language reinforces the idea that it is an inherently masculinist genre. Given the violence against women that underpins the glory and heroism celebrated in epic poetry, it is perhaps predictable that few women poets have written conventional epic verse. And more to the point, traditionally defined gender roles would have precluded women from writing epics for much ofliterary history. The global scope, public aspirations, and frequently nationalistic implications ofthe conventional genre, to say nothing ofits violent subject matter and celebration of masculine heroism, were considered inappropriate for women, who were'expected to deal with stereotypically feminine subjects associated with the private, domestic sphere. Further, the long-enduring sexist notion that women are incapable ofproducing great literature tacitly forbade women from writing epic verse, long considered the greatest and most ambitious ofpoetic forms. It is hardly surprising that relatively few women have written epics or that those few works written by women prior to the twentieth century,
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