Wallace Stevens: Archetypal Sexual Fissure

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the psychosexual conflict between the hero archetype and feminine archetype in a group of Stevens' poems and underscores how that conflict supplements or surprises customary readings. It focuses on the poet-hero as the central figure of sexual polarity, distinct from biography and contemporary critical approaches, and thus humanizes many abstract stick-figures.

From the Paper:

"One of the constructive ways to get at the abstractions and ambiguities in the poetry of Wallace Stevens is to reify the diverse speakers of his poems as a single protagonist-an archetype of the poet-and to treat this meta-Stevens as the psychosexual hero of his own poems. Archetypes and archetypal patterns abound in poetry, but it is plain that in Stevens more than in other modern poets the primary conflict beneath the surface of many of his poems is a conflict between male and females archetypes, and the poet-hero's self-protective ambivalence between creation and procreation as competitors. Stevens invites this archetypal reading because the female figures in his work, young and old, are archetypal sketches or women without biographies. To analyze the poet-hero's psychosexual interaction with these figures turns conventional interpretations of Stevens' poetry on their head and uncovers fresh and comprehensible vantage points on his work."

More papers on Wallace Stevens: Archetypal Sexual Fissure:

• Analytical Essay # 60598 : "Wallace Stevens' Poetry"
• Analytical Essay # 60388 : "Wallace Stevens and Desire: Woman Lost--Woman Ignored"
• Analytical Essay # 46021 : "The Poetry of Wallace Stevens"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: