Ekphrasis in the Poem «Snakecharmer» by S. Plath
Abstract
The article studies singularity of the ekphrasis in the poem «Snakecharmer» by the American poetess Sylvia Plath inspired by the same-name picture by the French painter Henri Rousseau. Plath gives new meanings to the painting and creates her own version of cosmogonic and eschatological myth entering into a dialogue and a contest with the previous cultural tradition. Verbally transformed Rousseau’s images manifest their multi-layered ambivalent character. The main character in the picture by H. Rousseau is depicted with masculine features in the poem. The gender metamorphosis happening to the Snakecharmer is analysed in the context of the whole writer’s biography of S. Plath. It is concluded that the central figure, symbolically embodying the idea of creativity as it is, has androgynal nature. The narrative structure of the poem is defined by the root principle of the ekphrastic conception of «Snakecharmer» – the principle of dialectical unity of polar beginnings: orderliness and chaos, the Apollonian statics and the Dionysian dynamics, scenic formalization and musical fluidity.
Key words: ekphrasis, painting, music, image, myth, power, creativity, gender, the Dionysian, the Apollonian.
DOI 10.18522/1995-0640-2020-4-128-136
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