Masters Degrees (English)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (English) by Author "Brooks, Mariza"

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    Imagining the mad woman: applying concepts of the narrative imagination, psychoanalytic and feminist theory to "The bell jar" and selected poems by Sylvia Plath
    (University of the Free State, 2011) Kriel, Johanet Alice; Brooks, Mariza
    In this dissertation, several aspects and processes of the female and melancholic psyche are discussed in terms of Sylvia Plath’s life and work. The two pivotal theoretical schools which are thus of interest are psychoanalysis and feminism. In addition, there is another conceptual framework that is of importance to this study, namely American moral philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s notion of the narrative imagination and its role in liberal education. However, this theory is not discussed in detail but rather provides the broader framework for the dissertation; setting the tone for the discussions as it were. While this particular analysis is thus by no means comprehensive or complete, the aim is for the reader to actively apply his/her narrative imagination in order to more fully grasp the internal world and external circumstances of the female figures in Plath’s work and thereby grasp some of Plath’s psychical processes (as opposed to attempting a holistic grasp on Plath’s psyche). In terms of psychoanalysis, the various influences that can potentially impact (often negatively) the human psyche are considered. The focus is mostly on the female psyche, and therefore the analysis concentrates specifically on the following: the influence of the Electra/Oedipus complex on the girl/woman’s relationship with the father figure (both her actual father and the symbolic order which functions as a father in patriarchal society) and subsequently with her sexual/romantic partners; the girl/woman’s intense and ambivalent relationship with the mother figure (as the primal love-object and as the model of ideal femininity); and the reciprocal dynamic which exists between these relationships and the girl/woman’s psyche and life. The influence and incarnation of various other psychoanalytic notions are also considered; such as the ideal ego, the divided self and the masochistic ego. Furthermore, the characteristics and possible effects of melancholia and the deathdrive are examined, particularly in terms of suicide as an act of self-affirmation. In so far as it is possible and plausible, these psychoanalytic notions are related to Plath’s work and, by inference, to certain aspects of her life. With regards to feminist theory, theorists who also employ a psychoanalytic stance (such as the so-called “French feminists” Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva) with regards to the specific position of the female figure in patriarchal society were examined. As such, the thoughts of several well-known and lesser known feminist theorists (for example, Jacqueline Rose and Juliet Mitchell) are discussed and applied. Of particular importance is patriarchal society’s definition of womanhood and the conflicts which women experience because of this, specifically within the unique cultural setting of 1950s America. Therefore, the influences of the symbolic order in numerous of its figurations are examined and how they can silence women, specifically the female writer. Other central concepts in reaching a deeper understanding of Plath’s work and some of the psychical aspects she probes therewith include: the women’s role as commodity and fetish object, the mother figure’s role in perpetuating patriarchal pressure on her daughter, the female and especially the maternal body as embodiment of the abject, and conversely the way in which writing her body can offer the woman a subjective affirmation in the form of écriture féminine.
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    A woman’s pilgrimage to herself through the mother complex: A Jungian reading of selected works by Sylvia Plath
    (University of the Free State, 2017-06) Pridgeon, Sarah Josie; Brooks, Mariza
    Sylvia Plath’s work pioneers woman’s experience of herself, her identity, and the ample mental, psychic, emotional and physical phases of female development. Past scholarship has endeavoured to examine her work in terms of the father-daughter relationship, mostly within a Freudian ‘oedipal’ framework. Yet, to date no substantive study has sought to examine the inverse: the effects the mother-complex has had on her work and by implication, her identity and development as an individual, woman, poet and mother. To address this lacuna this study aims to examine the overlooked and highly significant effect the mother-complex has had on Plath’s construction of her identity in her work using anomalous Jungian theory, which posits that above all individuals seek ‘attainment of self’, that is, to unify the various dimensions of their psyche and become whole. I aim to analyse the rich transformative archetypes and symbolism indicative of this personal quest which was augured by her confrontation of the mother-complex. To ascertain the effects and examine such development, the apposite, selected texts for this study comprise the last phase of her works, her late poems (post-1961) and novel (The Bell Jar, 1963), which I have supplemented with her journals (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 2000) and the correspondence she had with her mother (Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963, 1975) to provide a thorough and all-inclusive investigation of this phenomenon. Plath’s confrontation of the rudimentary mother-complex and identity construction evident in these texts manifests in the consequential search for role models, the thematic dichotomies of life/death, creation/destruction and perfectionism characteristic of Plath’s work. The theoretical framework used to ascertain this hypothesis includes previously unapplied and befitting Jungian theory, Bowlby’s attachment theory as well as second-wave feminist theory. The foremost theoretical constructs, which highlight the effects the mother has on the daughter’s psyche and psychic growth, emphasises the interconnected dimensions of the psyche using Jung’s concepts of the mother-complex, shadow, persona, wise old woman and animus. Attachment theory demonstrates the preliminary nascence of this mother-complex. Alongside the analytical psychology and developmental models, aspects of second-wave feminism elucidate the impact that psycho-social factors have on identity development, and woman’s inherent ambivalence, as modelled by the mother and other women. This includes Betty Friedan’s ‘feminine mystique’ and how 1950s woman’s potentialities were restricted due to static professional and personal norms; Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the ‘eternal feminine’ and woman as Other and Judith Butler’s ‘gender performativity’ which confines woman’s capabilities and influence to restrictive gender norms. Altogether this multi-faceted framework provides pertinent clarifications from a new angle for this hypothesis in connection with her mother Aurelia Plath, necessitating the impact of this on her life and work. This study, representative of one poet’s quest to cherchez la femme which follows the inherent need for ‘attainment of self’, can be extrapolated to fit into a broader framework that addresses the customary mother-daughter relationship interconnected with woman’s identity. The expansion of these two fundaments, relative to all women on a (personal and) collective level, is addressed in the last chapter of this study. This challenges the existing conceptualisations thereof to create a new narrative that is conducive to and necessitates woman’s multifarious needs, as an attempt to rewrite and recreate a unique trajectory for the development of the restrictive and prescriptive expectations established in woman’s consciousness, symptomatic of culture, as well as the affinities and aspirations within the collective unconscious.