The Aesthetics of the Serpent: Identity, Stigma, and Renewal in Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent
Öz
This article explores the image of the serpent and the reinterpretation of its association with women in Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent. The serpent, formerly a symbol of renewal and intuitive wisdom, turns into a representation of evil along with the rise of Judeo-Christian theology, and thus appears in the form a discursive apparatus serving the demonization of women through the culturally produced links to femininity. Challenging the patriarchal transmission of serpentine imagery, the author subverts this cultural lineage and restores it as a symbol of renewal and aesthetic transformation through the novel’s female protagonist, Cora Seaborne. While Cora rebuilds her identity through science and reason against the social constraints of the Victorian era, the novel’s understanding of contemporary feminist aesthetics reconsiders the serpent-woman image not as a mark of stigma but rather as a narrative of liberation and transformation.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
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