Reading Duffy using the feminist

and the psychoanalytic

approach
• Pygmalion’s Bride
• Medusa
• Thetis
• Salome
 The Feminist Approach

• Attempt to reconstitute the ways readers deal with literature in order to justice
to female points of views, concerns and values

• Which distinctive techniques does Duffy use to reconstitute the way her poems
(as a body of literary work) are interpreted by readers? In what way is such
interpretation significant in literary history?

• Which points of views are addressed in your poem and what does it represent?

• Which concerns and values pertaining to women are addressed in your poem?
 The Feminist Approach
• The Resisting Reader: Attempt to alter the way a woman reads the literature of the
past so as to make her not an acquiescent but one who resists the author’s
intentions and designs by a ‘revisionist rereading’ in order to bring to light and
counter the covert sexual biases written into a literary work.

• What is meant by a ‘revisionist rereading’ and how effectively does Duffy use the
method?

• How does Duffy challenge the subordinating roles given to women in literature of the
past? What is meant by a ‘revisionist rereading’ and how effectively does Duffy use
the method?
• How does Duffy use language to evoke an emotional response in the reader in favour
of her women characters?
 The Feminist Approach
• Identifying recurrent and distorting “images of women” in old literature,
myths and legends that originated in a patriarchal culture/ written by men
• Identifying idealized projections of men’s desires (in the form of the pure and
innocent virgin, an object of sexual desire, the Muses of the arts, the gentle
and caring wife and mother in a domestic role) and challenging such
projections
• Identifying demonic projections of men’s sexual resentments and terrors (Eve
as the source of evil/destructive sensual temptresses/ the malign witch) and
challenging such projections
• What kind of women characters does Duffy identify with and with what
purpose?
• How does she use language in her characterization?
• How does she explore ideas of power, sexuality and gender in her poems?
 The Psychoanalytic Approach
• Psychoanalytical readings focus on the relationship between literature, the unconscious mind and
the reader’s conscious actions and thoughts.
• Freud developed his theory of the mind as an ‘iceberg’, with the conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious mind making up the different levels of sky, surface, and deep sea). In addition to this is
the iceberg, which includes the id, ego and superego, often collectively referred to as the ‘psychic
apparatus’.
• Ego: part of our conscious personality, the ego acts as the intermediary between the id and the
socially oriented external world. It is governed by logic and reason. The ego often restrains and
directs the impulses of the id.
• Id: the most primitive part of our personality -contains the urges and impulses that we typically do
not give into. The id only responds to what Freud calls ‘the pleasure principle’, which essentially
states that we only do things that are pleasurable.
• Superego- a part of the unconscious; attributed as the voice of our conscience and also self-
criticism- it incorporated our values and morals as taught to us and protects against impulses that
are socially unacceptable

• In what ways do Duffy’s poems help to bring out her personality and preferences in her
writing?
• In what way does Duffy’s style of writing compliment her personality and outlook on life?
The Psychoanalytic Approach
• Psychoanalytic literary criticism can be used to analyze and explain the
motivations and actions of certain characters in an author's work.
• How do Duffy’s poems explore the ideas of power, sexuality and gender?
• How does Duffy paint her characters and their motivations in her poem and with
what purpose does she do so?

• The unconscious is structured like a language. The symbolic realm of language is

developed by the poet to give a glimpse into their thoughts and reflections.
• How does Duffy use language to give a peek into the minds of her protagonists?
• What kind of symbolic or linguistic choices has Duffy made in her text and with
what purpose has she done so?
 The Psychoanalytic Approach
• Freud makes references to universal anxieties and desires that we, as
human beings, all innately share. Psychoanalytic literary criticism can be
used to explain why certain works are very appealing to a wide audience,
as it appeals to the universal unconscious mind.

• Which universal emotions does your poem help to reflect on?

• How does Duffy present these emotions with the help of literary /
linguistic devices?
• How do these emotions define her characters and what response do they
generate in the reader?
Myths and Legends:
Pygmalion’s Bride • Pygmalion, in Greek mythology, a king who
was the father of Metharme and, through
her marriage to Cinyras, the grandfather of
Adonis, according to Apollodorus of Athens.
• The Roman poet Ovid, in
his Metamorphoses, Book X, relates that
Pygmalion, a sculptor, makes an ivory
statue representing his ideal of womanhood
and then falls in love with his own creation,
which he names Galatea.
• Goddess Venus brings the statue to life in
answer to his prayer. Their
daughter Paphos gives her name to the city
of Paphos, the centre
of Aphrodite’s worship on Cyprus.
 • Medusa is one of the more unusual divine figures of
Myths and Legends: ancient Greece mythology. One of a trio of Gorgon
sisters, Medusa was the only sister who was not
Medusa immortal. She is famed for her snake-like hair and her
gaze, which turns those who look at her to stone.
• Legend states that Medusa was once a beautiful, avowed
priestess of Athena who was cursed for breaking her vow
of celibacy. She is not considered a goddess or Olympian,
but some variations on her legend say she consorted with
one.
• When Medusa had an affair with the sea god Poseidon,
Athena punished her. She turned Medusa into a hideous
hag, making her hair into writhing snakes and her skin
was turned a greenish hue. Anyone who locked gaze with
Medusa was turned into stone.
• The hero Perseus was sent on a quest to kill Medusa. He
was able to defeat the Gorgon by lopping off her head,
which he was able to do by fighting her reflection in his
highly polished shield. He later used her head as a
weapon to turn enemies to stone. An image of Medusa's
head was placed on Athena's own armor or shown on her
shield.
Myths and Legends:
Thetis • THETIS was a goddess of the sea and the leader of the
fifty Nereides. Like many other sea gods she possessed the
gift of prophesy and power to change her shape at will.

• Because of a prophesy that she was destined to bear a son

greater than his father, Zeus had her marry a mortal man.
Peleus, the chosen groom, was instructed to ambush her
on the beach, and not release his grasp of the struggling
goddess as she metamorphosed into a host of shapes. The
couple were afterwards married in a ceremony attended
by all the gods of heaven. She bore a son, the celebrated
hero Akhilleus (Achilles).
• In her desperate attempts to protect her son during the
Trojan War, Thetis called in many favours from the gods.
These included Hephaistos (Hephaestus) and Dionysos,
both of whom she had given refuge in the sea as they
faced crises of youth, and Zeus, whose throne she had
protected by summoning the giant Briareus-Aigaion
(Aegaeon) when the gods had sought to bind him.
Myths and Legends: • Salome is referred to as the “unrighteous” by some historians.
Salome Scripture tells how Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist
because he spoke out against Herod and his marriage to Herodias.
This Salome was surrounded by her mother Herodias and King
Herod, who divorced his wife and married Herodias, the wife of
his half-brother Philip. The family history was filled with corrupt
people, selfishness, and the need for power.
• John the Baptist had been put in prison for speaking out and
condemning the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias.
Although John the Baptist was imprisoned, Herod was reluctant to
have him killed, because of John’s popularity. Herod knew an
uprising could occur if he was the one to have John killed.
• alome was asked to dance for Herod and his guests at a festival.
Her beauty and dancing were meant to impress the guests.
He promised to give her whatever she wanted. Her mother
prompted Salome to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a
platter. What a gory and cruel thing to request! Herod was then
forced to have John beheaded.