The Myth of Eros in Michael Field’s Sapphic Project: from a New Materialism to a Tragic Determinism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17398/2660-7301.43.119Keywords:
Michael Field, Long Ago, Sappho, Eros, Paradox, MythAbstract
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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References
CANTILLO-LUCUARA, M.E. (2018a): «Michael Field’s Sapphism: An Ontology of the Feminine in Long Ago (1889)». Lectora: Revista de dones i textualitat, 24, pp. 205-222.
––– (2018b): «Michael Field’s Long Ago (1889): A Transcendental Mythopoesis of Desire and Death». ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies, 39, pp. 69‒96.
CARSON, A. (1986): Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton, PUP.
DUBOIS, P. (2015). Sappho. London-New York, I.B. Tauris.
EVANGELISTA, S. (2009): British Aestheticism and the Ancient Greece: Hellenism, Reception, Gods in Exile. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
FIELD, M. (1889): Long Ago. London, George Bell and Sons.
HEIDEGGER, M. (1962): Being and Time. Trans.: J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. New York, Harper Perennial.
LANDES, D.A. (2013): The Merleau-Ponty Dictionary. London, Bloomsbury.
LEIGHTON, A. (1992): Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart. New York, Harvester Wheatsheaf.
MADDEN, E. (2008): Tiresian Poetics: Modernism, Sexuality, Voice, 1888‒2001. Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
MAXWELL, C. (2001): The Female Sublime from Milton to Swinburne: Bearing Blindness. Manchester, MUP.
O’GORMAN, F. (2016): «Michael Field and Sapphic Fame: My Dark-Leaved Laurels Will Endure». Victorian Literature and Culture, 34.2, pp. 649-661.
OLVERSON, T.D. (2009): «Libidinous Laureates and Lyrical Maenads: Michael Field, Swinburne and Erotic Hellenism». Victorian Poetry, 47.4, pp. 759-802.
OVID (1814): The Epistles of Ovid. Trans. and ed.: J. Nunn, R. Priestly, R. Lea, and J. Rodwell. Perseus Digital Library (on-line: <perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0085%3Apoem%3D15> [accessed: 15 April 2019]).
PLATO (1925): «Symposium». Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9. Trans.: H.N. Fowler. Cambridge (MA), Harvard UP.
PRIMAMORE, E.A. (2009): «Michael Field’s Sapphic Communities: Constructing the Transgressive Feminine Sensibility in Long Ago (1889)». The Michaelian, 1 (on line: <thelatchkey.org/Field/MF1/primamorearticle.htm> [accessed: 18 April 2019]).
PRINS, Y. (1999): Victorian Sappho. Princeton, PUP.
REYNOLDS, M. (2003): The Sappho History. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
THAIN, M. (2007): ‘Michael Field’ Poetry, Aestheticism, and the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, CUP.
THORNTON, B.S. (1997): Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality. Oxford, Westview Press.
SMITH, W. (1876): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol. II. London, John Murray.
WHITE, C. (1996a): «The Tiresian Poet: Michael Field». In: Leighton A. (ed.), Victorian Women Poets: A Critical Reader. London, Blackwell, pp. 148-161.
––– (1996b): «Flesh and Roses: Michael Field’s Metaphors of Pleasure and Desire». Women’s Writing, 3.1, pp. 47-62.
––– (1990): «Poets and Lovers Evermore: Interpreting Female Love in the Poetry and Journals of Michael Field». Textual Practice, 4.2, pp. 197-212.
WILLIAMSON, M. (1995): Sappho's Immortal Daughters. Cambridge (MA), Harvard UP.
––– (2018b): «Michael Field’s Long Ago (1889): A Transcendental Mythopoesis of Desire and Death». ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies, 39, pp. 69‒96.
CARSON, A. (1986): Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton, PUP.
DUBOIS, P. (2015). Sappho. London-New York, I.B. Tauris.
EVANGELISTA, S. (2009): British Aestheticism and the Ancient Greece: Hellenism, Reception, Gods in Exile. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
FIELD, M. (1889): Long Ago. London, George Bell and Sons.
HEIDEGGER, M. (1962): Being and Time. Trans.: J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. New York, Harper Perennial.
LANDES, D.A. (2013): The Merleau-Ponty Dictionary. London, Bloomsbury.
LEIGHTON, A. (1992): Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart. New York, Harvester Wheatsheaf.
MADDEN, E. (2008): Tiresian Poetics: Modernism, Sexuality, Voice, 1888‒2001. Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
MAXWELL, C. (2001): The Female Sublime from Milton to Swinburne: Bearing Blindness. Manchester, MUP.
O’GORMAN, F. (2016): «Michael Field and Sapphic Fame: My Dark-Leaved Laurels Will Endure». Victorian Literature and Culture, 34.2, pp. 649-661.
OLVERSON, T.D. (2009): «Libidinous Laureates and Lyrical Maenads: Michael Field, Swinburne and Erotic Hellenism». Victorian Poetry, 47.4, pp. 759-802.
OVID (1814): The Epistles of Ovid. Trans. and ed.: J. Nunn, R. Priestly, R. Lea, and J. Rodwell. Perseus Digital Library (on-line: <perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0085%3Apoem%3D15> [accessed: 15 April 2019]).
PLATO (1925): «Symposium». Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9. Trans.: H.N. Fowler. Cambridge (MA), Harvard UP.
PRIMAMORE, E.A. (2009): «Michael Field’s Sapphic Communities: Constructing the Transgressive Feminine Sensibility in Long Ago (1889)». The Michaelian, 1 (on line: <thelatchkey.org/Field/MF1/primamorearticle.htm> [accessed: 18 April 2019]).
PRINS, Y. (1999): Victorian Sappho. Princeton, PUP.
REYNOLDS, M. (2003): The Sappho History. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
THAIN, M. (2007): ‘Michael Field’ Poetry, Aestheticism, and the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, CUP.
THORNTON, B.S. (1997): Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality. Oxford, Westview Press.
SMITH, W. (1876): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol. II. London, John Murray.
WHITE, C. (1996a): «The Tiresian Poet: Michael Field». In: Leighton A. (ed.), Victorian Women Poets: A Critical Reader. London, Blackwell, pp. 148-161.
––– (1996b): «Flesh and Roses: Michael Field’s Metaphors of Pleasure and Desire». Women’s Writing, 3.1, pp. 47-62.
––– (1990): «Poets and Lovers Evermore: Interpreting Female Love in the Poetry and Journals of Michael Field». Textual Practice, 4.2, pp. 197-212.
WILLIAMSON, M. (1995): Sappho's Immortal Daughters. Cambridge (MA), Harvard UP.
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Published
2020-10-02
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How to Cite
Cantillo Lucuara, Mayron Estefan. 2020. “The Myth of Eros in Michael Field’s Sapphic Project: From a New Materialism to a Tragic Determinism”. Anuario De Estudios Filológicos 43 (October): 119-36. https://doi.org/10.17398/2660-7301.43.119.
