Assertion of Female Poetics and Subversion of Mythical Pan in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems

Authors : Şafak HORZUM

Pages : 843-851

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Publication Date : 2023-08-28

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :It is uncommon to see women poets in the literary history of Britain since the literary circles had the belief that women were incapable of writing poetry, the highest form of literary arts. In the nineteenth century when socio-political norms were predominantly defined according to one’s sexuality, though, a woman poet, namely Elizabeth Barrett Browning insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1806–1861);, challenged this heteronormative mentality of poetics and began to question the validity of the reliance on the poetic forefathers’ visions of poetic creativity. In this context, this paper first aims to discuss Barrett Browning’s struggles in finding her voice by analysing her two significant poems “The Deserted Garden” insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1838); and “The Lost Bower” insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1844);. Having shown the ways the poet asserts her understanding of female poetics, the study will attempt to analyse how she advances her subversion of poetic creativity and the figure associated with the poet, Pan the goat-god, by means of opening up the so-called mythical divinity’s reputation and credibility into scrutiny. In this regard, this article takes Barrett Browning’s Pan-poems “The Dead Pan” insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1844);, “A Reed” insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1846); and “A Musical Instrument” insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1860); for a critical understanding of the poet’s suggestion to abandon this figure as the divine artist.
Keywords : Elizabeth Barrett Browning, kadın şair, Pan, kadın şiir sanatı, Viktorya dönemi şiiri