Anne Sextonの詩における「母親」 : マトロフォビアからマトロフィリアへ(吉田徹夫教授退職記念号)
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概要
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Anne Sexton, the confessional poet wrote poetry frankly from her own experiences as a psychiatric patient and woman. One of the important themes of Sexton's poetry is her family, especially her mother Mary Gray. The mother died before Sexton pubhshed her first book, but Sexton kept on writing about her mother to the end. ln addition Sexton committed suicide wearing the coat that is her mother's inheritance. Therefore the mother Maiy Gray is the most important person in Sexton's life and poetry. In her early poems, Sexton is apparently Matrophobia. Although Sexton wanted to marry and have a baby when she was young, after child-birth she could not become an ideal mother whom she wanted to be, and she had neurosis of child-raising. She feared to be a dominant mother like her mother Mary Gray, and wrote hatred to the mother and guilt together in the early poetry. ln "The Double Image" the persona confesses her "worst guilt" that she bears the daughter Joyce for her egoistic reason. She realizes the same guilt as her mother has, and holds hatred to the mother and herself. ln "Those Times…" she talks about the childhood as a victim of the child abuse by her mother, but she is also a murderer who gives her mother breast cancer. Sexton recomized her own problem by writing confessional poetry. Sexton's hatred to the mother changed gradually during the period of her poetic maturity, because writing poetry was the psycho therapy for her. Transformations is the turning point of her poetic style. Borrowing the framework of the Grimm's tales, she rewrote the family problems objectively. ln particular she emphasized the relationship between the mother and the daughter, and pointed out that the daughter repeats her mother's guilt. In her later poems Sexton became Matrophlia, and she began to praise her mother and look for mother's love. ln "Food" the baby persona begs her mother for milk that means the mother's love. ln "The Angel Food Dogs" the persona admires the mother as if she were Virgin Mary, and wishes for her mother's name Mary. Sexton is transformed from Matrophobia into Matrophilia, and her affection to the mother Mary Gray also changed from hatred to love and admiration.
- 2005-02-28