Open Access
American Research Journal of English and Literature
ISSN (Online): 2378-9026
DOI: 10.46568/arjel
Emotion, Nature, and Myth: A Critical Study of Louise Gluck’s Averno as Post-Confessional Poetry
Abstract
This study demonstrates how mythical narrative constructs a post-confessional tone in Louise Gluck’s Averno (2006)
through her personal experience of love, memory, liberty of mind and body, morality, and freedom of gender identity.
Averno is a prolonged mourning; its lengthy, frenetic compositions are equally fascinating, while traditional climaxes or
solace are equally magnificent despite being violent and heartbroken. Averno presents an autobiographical narrative,
the terrific eternal reality, and juxtaposes the link between myth and narrative of personal experiences into a universal
context. The myth of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades brings Gluck’s infatuation with death to relate to the nature of
the underworld and earth. Persephone’s image in Averno symbolizes Gluck’s disappointment in love, individual journey
of survival, and hope. Gluck’s uses of mythical allegory challenge the notion of patriarchy, and the standard of female
as an object of violence by providing a voice to the powerless victim, which conflates mythical past and contemporary
reality by transcending the biography and avoiding Gluck’s direct self-confessionalism. Thus, this study explores Gluck’s
self-proclaim confessionalism through her poetic expression of mythical narrative, emotional memory, and experiences
of personal suffering in Averno.
