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“All Your Ages at the Mercy of My Loves”: Rewriting History in John Berryman's Homage to Mistress Bradstreet.
- Source :
-
Journal of American Studies . Nov2014, Vol. 48 Issue 4, p999-1018. 20p. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- Since its 1953 publication, John Berryman's Homage to Mistress Bradstreet has incited debate. The text's dialogue with the first published poet of colonial North America has been described as a factual study, a redaction of adultery and a veiled critique of modern society. It is seldom noted, however, that Berryman's strategy of “modulat[ing]” his voice into Anne Bradstreet's raises key questions regarding his reappropriation of her life and writing. Does Homage's conscious ventriloquism problematize its status as a “historical” poem? And how might this revised understanding illuminate the work's relation to America's origins? This paper proposes a more multifaceted context for Homage's composition than has hitherto been recognized. Through mapping the poem's rewriting of history, I demonstrate it to be the product of both national and literary anxieties: if voicing Bradstreet enables Berryman to interrogate the American Dream's legacy, her canonical status casts scrutiny upon the contemporary poet's role in an age of sociopolitical tensions. Foregrounding Berryman's public self-positioning in Homage invites a reassessment of his engagements with society that liberates his oeuvre from “confessional” designations. As a result, it opens the way for readings that might situate Homage and The Dream Songs within the wider tradition of American epic poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00218758
- Volume :
- 48
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of American Studies
- Publication Type :
- Review
- Accession number :
- 98555079
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875814000632