The Electra Complex in Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton's Poems

Abstract

本文旨在探討美國當代女詩人布拉斯（1932-63），賽司頓（1928-74）詩中的戀父情結。兩者各有其方式處理戀父情結：布拉斯透過超現實，亦即強調夢中實現想像和表面上無意識掌控的表達方式；賽司頓透過性意象和平行法表現。兩者雖表達方式不同，卻有類似性：她們從戀父情結中逃脫出來，以女性主義為立足點對抗父權，重新建構自己。戀父情結消失時，自我意識增加，而渴望脫離父親。在此文中，我想用佛洛伊德的《性別與愛心理學》中的戀父情結理論，來分析她們詩中的異同。討論布拉斯與賽司頓各五首詩，以檢視詩人筆下的父親形象和自己對父親矛盾的情感，並想證明詩人透過創作重新建構創傷往事的事實，尤其是自己。

This paper aims to explore the theme of the Electra complex in the poems by two contemporaneous American female poets, Sylvia Plath (1932-63) and Anne Sexton (1928-74). The theme of the Electra complex is dealt with by these two poets through their own unique treatments: Plath represents the theme through surrealist expression, namely, an emphasis on the expression of the imagination as realized in dreams and presented ostensibly without conscious control. Sexton shows the theme through sexual imagery and parallelism. These two poets demonstrate the same theme in diverge ways, but they share an affinity: Escaping from the development of their Electra complex, they reconstruct themselves by way of taking a feminist stance against patriarchy. When their Electra complex disappears, their self-consciousness increases; consequently, they yearn for the independence to flee from their fathers. In this paper, I propose to use the theory of the Electra complex as presented in Sigmund Freud’s Sexuality and the Psychology of Love as a critical tool to analyze the uniqueness and similarities within their poems. The poems that will be discussed include Sylvia Plath’s “Full Fathom Five,” “Electra on Azalea Path,” “The Beekeeper’s Daughter,” “The Colossus,” and “Wintering;” Anne Sexton’s “The Moss of His Skin,” “All My Pretty Ones,” “And One for My Dame,” “The Papa and Mama Dance,” and “Briar Rose.” In my paper, I attempt to examine their description of their fathers and their ambivalent feelings towards their fathers. I argue that these two poets, through their creations, reconstruct the fact (the memory) of their traumatic past, fathers’ images and themselves in particular.