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Weaving and the Tarot as Apollonian Repressive Mechanisms in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” and Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love”

Year 2020, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 160 - 175, 23.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.728575

Abstract

Storytelling and its most common emblem weaving have a significant place in the history of ideas and literature, and women weaving stories on their web is a recurrent image in mythology, fairy tale and folklore. According to Foucault, weaving stories also has the role of repressing desire and cancelling death. In Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott” and Angela Carter’s short story “The Lady of the House of Love,” the female figures repress desire and cancel death by habitual conciliatory actions emblematic of storytelling, which are weaving in Tennyson’s poem and the Tarot play in Carter’s story that has the same function as weaving. In both works abandoning this action, that is, giving up spinning shadows/stories of life, and deciding to get involved in actual human experience results in self-annihilation and death. The present article handles weaving in “The Lady of Shalott” and the Tarot in “The Lady of the House of Love” as two similar forms of repressing desire and studies in these works the repression of desire and fulfilment of desire and the consequential death of the female characters. The article bases its theoretical framework on a synthesis of Foucault’s idea that narrative is a form of cancelling death with Nietzsche’s idea of the binary opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian states in the human soul, identifying desire and death with the Dionysian and the repressive mechanisms of narrative with the Apollonian.

References

  • Carter, Angela (2006). The Bloody Chamber. London: Vintage.
  • Chadwick, Joseph (1986). “A Blessing and a Curse: The Poetics of Privacy in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”” Victorian Poetry, Vol. 24, No.1. (pp. 13-30)
  • Clayton, Barbara (2004). A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. Lanham, Lexington Books.
  • Foucault, Michel (1989). “What is an Author.” The Critical Tradition, D. H. Richter (ed.). New York: St. Martin’s Press. (pp. 978-988)
  • Harding, Anthony John (1991). “Forgetfulness and the Poetic Self in “Home at Grasmere”” The Wordsworth Circle, Vol. 22, No 2. (pp. 109-118)
  • Jung, Karl Gustav (1997). Visions: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1930-1934. C. Douglas (ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • Kennedy, George A. (1986). “Helen’s Web Unraveled.” Arethusa, Vol. 19, No 1. (pp. 5-14)
  • Kenner, Corinne (1999). The Symbolist: A Simplified Guide to Tarot Symbols and Terms. Ret. From https://www.academia.edu/30996164/The_Symbolist_A_Simplified_Guide_to_Tarot_Symbols_and_Terms Kruger, Kathryn Sullivan (2001). Weaving the Word: The Metaphorics of Weaving and Female Textual Production. Selinsgrove: Susquehenna University Press.
  • Knight, Gareth (1996). The Magic World of the Tarot: Fourfold Mirror of the Universe. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Wiser, Inc.
  • Nichols, Sallie (1980). Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. Boston: WiserBooks.
  • Nietzsche, Frederick (1995). The Birth of Tragedy. New York: Dover Publications (original work published 1872).
  • Nietzsche, Frederick (2019). The Use and Abuse of History. New York: Dover Publications (original work published 1884).
  • Nikiforova, Anna (2018). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volüme 284. (pp. 638-642)
  • Sellers, Susan (2001). Myth and Faairy Tale in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. New York, Palgrave.
  • Tennyson, L. A. (1891). The Complete Works of Lord Alfred Tennyson, Vol. II. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.

Weaving and the Tarot as Apollonian Repressive Mechanisms in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” and Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love”

Year 2020, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 160 - 175, 23.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.728575

Abstract

Storytelling and its most common emblem weaving have a significant place in the history of ideas and literature, and women weaving stories on their web is a recurrent image in mythology, fairy tale and folklore. According to Foucault, weaving stories also has the role of repressing desire and cancelling death. In Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott” and Angela Carter’s short story “The Lady of the House of Love,” the female figures repress desire and cancel death by habitual conciliatory actions emblematic of storytelling, which are weaving in Tennyson’s poem and the Tarot play in Carter’s story that has the same function as weaving. In both works abandoning this action, that is, giving up spinning shadows/stories of life, and deciding to get involved in actual human experience results in self-annihilation and death. The present article handles weaving in “The Lady of Shalott” and the Tarot in “The Lady of the House of Love” as two similar forms of repressing desire and studies in these works the repression of desire and fulfilment of desire and the consequential death of the female characters. The article bases its theoretical framework on a synthesis of Foucault’s idea that narrative is a form of cancelling death with Nietzsche’s idea of the binary opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian states in the human soul, identifying desire and death with the Dionysian and the repressive mechanisms of narrative with the Apollonian.

References

  • Carter, Angela (2006). The Bloody Chamber. London: Vintage.
  • Chadwick, Joseph (1986). “A Blessing and a Curse: The Poetics of Privacy in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”” Victorian Poetry, Vol. 24, No.1. (pp. 13-30)
  • Clayton, Barbara (2004). A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. Lanham, Lexington Books.
  • Foucault, Michel (1989). “What is an Author.” The Critical Tradition, D. H. Richter (ed.). New York: St. Martin’s Press. (pp. 978-988)
  • Harding, Anthony John (1991). “Forgetfulness and the Poetic Self in “Home at Grasmere”” The Wordsworth Circle, Vol. 22, No 2. (pp. 109-118)
  • Jung, Karl Gustav (1997). Visions: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1930-1934. C. Douglas (ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • Kennedy, George A. (1986). “Helen’s Web Unraveled.” Arethusa, Vol. 19, No 1. (pp. 5-14)
  • Kenner, Corinne (1999). The Symbolist: A Simplified Guide to Tarot Symbols and Terms. Ret. From https://www.academia.edu/30996164/The_Symbolist_A_Simplified_Guide_to_Tarot_Symbols_and_Terms Kruger, Kathryn Sullivan (2001). Weaving the Word: The Metaphorics of Weaving and Female Textual Production. Selinsgrove: Susquehenna University Press.
  • Knight, Gareth (1996). The Magic World of the Tarot: Fourfold Mirror of the Universe. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Wiser, Inc.
  • Nichols, Sallie (1980). Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. Boston: WiserBooks.
  • Nietzsche, Frederick (1995). The Birth of Tragedy. New York: Dover Publications (original work published 1872).
  • Nietzsche, Frederick (2019). The Use and Abuse of History. New York: Dover Publications (original work published 1884).
  • Nikiforova, Anna (2018). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volüme 284. (pp. 638-642)
  • Sellers, Susan (2001). Myth and Faairy Tale in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. New York, Palgrave.
  • Tennyson, L. A. (1891). The Complete Works of Lord Alfred Tennyson, Vol. II. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
There are 15 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section ARAŞTIRMA MAKALELERİ (TÜRKÇE )
Authors

Fırat Karadaş 0000-0002-7546-717X

Publication Date June 23, 2020
Submission Date April 28, 2020
Acceptance Date June 9, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 5 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Karadaş, F. (2020). Weaving and the Tarot as Apollonian Repressive Mechanisms in Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” and Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love”. Söylem Filoloji Dergisi, 5(1), 160-175. https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.728575