“I was a stuffed toucan”: Poetic Self-Positioning in Robert Lowell’s Life Studies“

Authors

  • Eva Brunner Humboldt University Berlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.53

Abstract

This paper addresses identity construction in Robert Lowell’s Life Studies“. I argue that references to family, history and other poets indirectly inform the presented self image and call this process poetic self-positioning. In contrast to earlier psychoanalytical and biographical readings, this interpretation is based on the notion of narrative identity. Additionally, I stress the relevance of the concept of ‘emotion’ to identity constructions.

Author Biography

Eva Brunner, Humboldt University Berlin

Eva Brunner has studied Comparative Literature, Psychology and Communication and Media Studies in Bochum, Berlin, and Berkeley. Currently, she is a doctoral student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, supported by Fazit-Stifung. The working title of her dissertation reads: “Poetics of Extreme Selves: Identity and Emotion in Sylvia Plath, Anne Seton, and Robert Lowell“. Other research interests of Eva are metaphors of illnesses, the work of Siri Hustvedt, and cultural and literary theory.

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Published

2012-05-09

How to Cite

Brunner, Eva. “‘I Was a Stuffed toucan’: Poetic Self-Positioning in Robert Lowell’s Life Studies“”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 13, May 2012, doi:10.5283/copas.53.

Issue

Vol. 13 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.