Tijana Matović
University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Philology and Arts, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of Louise Erdrich’s short story, “The Bingo Van” (1990) as a representative work of her long-standing narrative attempt to use gambling as a way of addressing the possibility of change in... more
The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of Louise Erdrich’s short story, “The Bingo Van” (1990) as a representative work of her long-standing narrative attempt to use gambling as a way of addressing the possibility of change in Native American communities. The protagonist of the story, Lipsha Morrissey, is a psychologically disoriented young Chippewa man, apparently focused on short-term goals, which ultimately reveal themselves as a corrupt version of the illusory American Dream. Lipsha is otherized and, as such, forced to accept the normative stamp of the culture of dominance, in Gerald Vizenor’s terminology. His healing power decreases as he becomes overwhelmed by the materialistic drive fueled by a prominent van-obsession. The sacred place is replaced with a pre-empted one, which brings about a moral devastation to Lipsha. His subsequent recovery progresses within a healing narrative, which enables a waking-up into a restful nothing—such an emptiness being vital in what Erdrich shapes as a powerful potential for recuperation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This study undertakes to analyze the creative oeuvre of Sylvia Plath, Anglo-American poet and prose author, inside the framework of theories of gender fluidity (Butler, Kristeva, Irigaray), autofiction as the genre of socially subdominant... more
This study undertakes to analyze the creative oeuvre of Sylvia Plath, Anglo-American poet and prose author, inside the framework of theories of gender fluidity (Butler, Kristeva, Irigaray), autofiction as the genre of socially subdominant groups (Doubrovsky), and trauma theory (Freud, Lacan, Caruth, Felman). The aim of this study is to conduct a critical reevaluation of Sylvia’s poetry and only novel, The Bell Jar (1963), so as to position them as independent of her biography, and therefore valid on their own.
Sylvia Plath’s literary opus is explored through themes of an authentic female experience during the 1950s and 1960s America and Britain, related to processes of survival in a (literary) environment which emphasizes masculine discourse as the norm – in writing, as well as in life. By employing her late poetry and only novel as the setting for critical investigation, I explore the implications of Plath’s symbolic treatment of the father and husband figures, of the conformist and appealing mother figure, as well as motherhood in its re-conceptualized version through which the lyrical speaker frees herself from the aforementioned ideological influences. Furthermore, I have discerned the search for identity and its realization in the process of taking the Other as a self-governing force and rejecting the imposed label of otherness, which excludes women from the normative currents of life and literary achievement, to be the main motif that sets the foundation for Plath’s entire work. The oppressive impositions of a patriarchal society are in this study found to be the principal constricting force in Plath’s oeuvre, which she attempted to displace via her indigenous expression, which helped her outline the contours of a new type of femininity.
Special attention is afforded to displacing "Sylvia as author" from the interpretation of her work and establishing "Sylvia as sensibility", whose main features are a passionate devotion to life experience, demonic perfectionism, insatiable eroticism, and mystical martyrdom. Only through such criticism can we reach her genius which saw inspiration for literary creativity in the rebirth of the self. Her authentic voice is important to this day, reaching all those who immerse themselves in the contradictions of the contemporary patterns of reality in order to reexamine that reality and to, as individuals among others, survive.
Sylvia Plath’s literary opus is explored through themes of an authentic female experience during the 1950s and 1960s America and Britain, related to processes of survival in a (literary) environment which emphasizes masculine discourse as the norm – in writing, as well as in life. By employing her late poetry and only novel as the setting for critical investigation, I explore the implications of Plath’s symbolic treatment of the father and husband figures, of the conformist and appealing mother figure, as well as motherhood in its re-conceptualized version through which the lyrical speaker frees herself from the aforementioned ideological influences. Furthermore, I have discerned the search for identity and its realization in the process of taking the Other as a self-governing force and rejecting the imposed label of otherness, which excludes women from the normative currents of life and literary achievement, to be the main motif that sets the foundation for Plath’s entire work. The oppressive impositions of a patriarchal society are in this study found to be the principal constricting force in Plath’s oeuvre, which she attempted to displace via her indigenous expression, which helped her outline the contours of a new type of femininity.
Special attention is afforded to displacing "Sylvia as author" from the interpretation of her work and establishing "Sylvia as sensibility", whose main features are a passionate devotion to life experience, demonic perfectionism, insatiable eroticism, and mystical martyrdom. Only through such criticism can we reach her genius which saw inspiration for literary creativity in the rebirth of the self. Her authentic voice is important to this day, reaching all those who immerse themselves in the contradictions of the contemporary patterns of reality in order to reexamine that reality and to, as individuals among others, survive.