The Myth of Eros in Michael Field’s sapphic project: From a new materialism to a tragic determinism

• Mayron Estefan Cantillo Lucuara ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat de València

     Universitat de València

     Valencia, España

     
• Localización: Anuario de estudios filológicos, ISSN 0210-8178, Vol. 43, 2020, págs. 119-136
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.17398/2660-7301.43.119
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El Mito de Eros en el proyecto sáfico de Michael Field: De un materialismo nuevo a un determinismo trágico
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    El objetivo de este artículo consiste en examinar cómo Katharine Bradley y su sobrina Edith Cooper reinterpretan la figura de Safo en conexión directa con el mito de Eros en Long Ago (1889), el primer poemario que compusieron bajo el pseudónimo de Michael Field. Con este propósito en mente, seleccionamos una serie de poemas dirigidos a la deidad griega del amor, realizamos un análisis detallado de los mismos y demostramos que las Fields componen una mitografía dramática que explora la identidad paradójica del dios y, al mismo tiempo, revela toda una verdad intemporal inherente al propio mito de Eros: el amor constituye un fenómeno ambivalente que crea, inspira y eleva tanto como destruye, oprime y mata.

  • English

    The purpose of this paper is to examine how Katharine Bradley and her niece Edith Cooper reinterpret the figure of Sappho in direct connection with the myth of Eros in Long Ago (1889), their first volume of lyrics written under the pen name of Michael Field.

    To this end, I select a series of poems addressed to the Greek deity of love, offer a close reading thereof, and prove that the Fields compose a dramatic mythography that explores the god’s paradoxical identity and, in so doing, reveals a timeless truth contained in the very essence of the Eros myth: love is an ambivalent phenomenon that creates, inspires and elevates as much as it destroys, oppresses, and kills.

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