Exodus or Exile: The Trope of "more life" in Louise Glück’s Poetry
(A research article in English/ Artykuł w języku angielskim)
Abstract
Exodus or Exile: The Trope of "more life" in Louise Glück’s Poetry
What is life in poetry? One concept that is trying to answer this questions is a psycho-theological, messianic and vitalist category of “more life,” elaborated by the Polish scholar Agata Bielik-Robson on the basis of Harold Bloom’s theory of poetic incarnation. Bloom’s writings constitute a link between the Jewish messianic vitalism and the vitalist line of American poetry, in which I place Glück. An antithetical position of subjectivity
against the orders of experience governed by law and necessity (nature and death), “more life” positions the poetic psyche in a precarious position as an excessive entity in-between
them. The article examines a trajectory of the positions that Glück’s poetic subjects take
in relation to those orders in the context of the messianic promise of “more life.”
Keywords
Louise Glück; Agata Bielik Robson; Harold Bloom; vitalism in American poetry
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University of Łódź Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7284-9930
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