Faculty Sponsor(s)
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and Joe Wilkins
Location
Jereld R. Nicholson Library: Austin Reading Room
Subject Area
English: Literature
Description
This presentation provides a comparative analysis of the poetry collections Twenty-One Love Poems by Adrienne Rich and Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy, focusing on the utilization and subversion of similar structural and thematic elements from the tradition of love sonnets and sonnet sequences. However, the collections differ when it comes to the gendering of the beloved. In Twenty-One Love Poems, her identity as a woman is revealed early on in the sequence but not until later in Rapture. This seemingly inconsequential difference highlights the more subtle splits between the two collections in terms of depicting binary and non-binary sexuality as well as different conceptualizations of politicalized lesbian identity.
Recommended Citation
Seiler-Garman, Robin, "Lesbian Love Sonnets: Twenty-One Love Poems and Rapture" (2017). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 61.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2017/all/61
Lesbian Love Sonnets: Twenty-One Love Poems and Rapture
Jereld R. Nicholson Library: Austin Reading Room
This presentation provides a comparative analysis of the poetry collections Twenty-One Love Poems by Adrienne Rich and Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy, focusing on the utilization and subversion of similar structural and thematic elements from the tradition of love sonnets and sonnet sequences. However, the collections differ when it comes to the gendering of the beloved. In Twenty-One Love Poems, her identity as a woman is revealed early on in the sequence but not until later in Rapture. This seemingly inconsequential difference highlights the more subtle splits between the two collections in terms of depicting binary and non-binary sexuality as well as different conceptualizations of politicalized lesbian identity.
