Divine Mothers: Demeter and the Virgin Mary in the Poetry of Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan, and Mary O'Malley
The Virgin Mary and the Greek goddess Demeter both make frequent appearances in Irish women's poetry. Usually these figures are treated as representative of separate aesthetic needs: the Virgin Mary as a religious figure only, and Demeter as a link to the classical past or a representative of m...
| Published in: | Christianity & literature |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
2023
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| In: |
Christianity & literature
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| RelBib Classification: | BE Greco-Roman religions CD Christianity and Culture HC New Testament KBF British Isles NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Mother
B Demeter B Poetry B Virgin Mary B Irish |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Virgin Mary and the Greek goddess Demeter both make frequent appearances in Irish women's poetry. Usually these figures are treated as representative of separate aesthetic needs: the Virgin Mary as a religious figure only, and Demeter as a link to the classical past or a representative of mother-daughter narratives. This separation, however, neglects how several poets, particularly Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan, and Mary O'Malley, make frequent use of both figures, often for related reasons. Demeter can thus be regarded as a parallel divine mother to Mary, whose agency and sexuality offer divine alternatives to Mary's remote passivity. |
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| ISSN: | 2056-5666 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/chy.2023.a904924 |