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10 - Burning Sappho

Gwen Harwood’s Incendiary Verse

from Part III - Authors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  aN Invalid Date NaN

Ann Vickery
Affiliation:
Deakin University, Victoria
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Summary

This chapter investigates Gwen Harwood’s subversion of gendered presumptions of authorship and style. After discussing her skilful redress of a male-dominant literary culture through hoax poetry, it considers how Harwood mobilised male personae to critique the cultural valuing of science and reason, explore sexual immorality, and address women’s experience of domesticity. It discusses how Harwood celebrated motherhood but was also one of the earliest writers to articulate its associated realities of exhaustion, loss of self, and feelings of despair and rage. The chapter argues that Harwood lays important groundwork for second-wave feminism while representing the ambiguities of care and connection. The chapter also engages with Harwood’s later exploration of death and the dynamic between sex and spirituality.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

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