Subjects and skins: Her curriculum – A collection of poems
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
For the mini-thesis component of my Masters in Creative Writing I aim to create a hybrid creative project that chronicles the individuation of a female protagonist from her infancy to motherhood, as it unfolds across the traditional educational and developmental phases. Throughout this metanarrative the subject's journey will be portrayed using the predominant literary form of poetry, prose poetry, as well as the conventional narrative elements of plot, theme, characterisation and point of view. Events encompassed within these developmental stages will be portrayed using lyric and prose poetry as the two main forms, although other intra-poetic forms, such as blackout, elegiac and acrostic poems, will also be used emblematically where suitable. The archetypal rebirth type within this bildungspoesie will be situated within selected Monomyth stages, adapted from Joseph Campbell’s five-point plot subsections of the hero’s journey. Within the settings of home/s and institutions (educational and health), the overarching conflict type will be person versus self, explored in a series of vignette-like chronological poems. In alignment with the respective formative phases that occur within these spaces, and from the perspective of the girl/woman subject, I will explore the following themes: education (informal versus formal), medicine (Western versus Eastern), individual complexes within the psychic structure (shadow, persona, ego, self), and female Jungian archetypes (wise old woman, child, heroine, mother, animus), as well as the mind/body dualism. Two significant poetic influences demonstrating the advancement of selfhood using personal subject matter will include the confessional poetry of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Other influences of similar theme and genre, explored from the perspective of the girl/woman subject, will include work by Ruth Miller, Genna Gardini and Petra Müller. As such, I will draw creative context from my own non-literary subject matter, such as year books, photo albums and other personal records, as well as literary works analogous in form, genre, type and theme. Overall, this semi-autobiographical creative project takes the form of an experimental, hybrid work, accompanied by a critical reflexive essay.
Description
Keywords
Education, Individuation, Identity, Medicine, Bildungspoesie