Author Archives: Jae Yeon Yoo

Re: Limits on Quilligan

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Hi Rachel,

I agree with your point about the weakness of Quilligan’s argument; I especially liked the way you described incest as a temporary halt to the problem vs. actually giving women true agency. I wonder in what ways this plays out through the other 2 ways out of the system that Quilligan outlines on p. 13: celibacy and lesbian desire. While lesbianism might give women more sexual agency, Quilligan seems to agree with Butler that same-sex desire is interconnected to and springs from incest (p. 16). Also, as we’ve read before, explicit lesbian desire was not really recorded; it does not really give women an active voice in the kinship model or agency in the long run, regardless of what brief sexual liberation it might provide in the moment. The only way that seems to really work, then, is celibacy, which ironically (or fittingly) is the ultimate act of passivity.

Narcissism//Same-sex desire?

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In Donne’s Sappho to Philaenis, I was struck by how he seems to imply a certain sort of narcissism by being attracted to the same sex. For example, a main argument used by the narrator is that the two are so alike (although separate beings), that “Why should they not alike in all parts touch?” This theme continues shortly after, with “Likeness begets such strange self-flattery, / That touching myself all seems done to thee.” Does Donne then see lesbianism as an extended form of self-worship? Or is it vice versa, that self-adoration is an inevitable byproduct of lusting after another woman? Either way, it seems to me that there is a connection… any ideas?

Agency with God

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In the various poems that we have read for this week’s theme, I’m intrigued by the different amounts of agency that the narrators have. In Donne’s Holy Sonnet 19, the speaker appears to have absolutely no control on how religion is “ravishing” his heart/soul to poems; in contrast, Herbert’s narrator is the one that is invited and chooses to feast upon Love. Yet another different approach is in Herrick’s Prayer to Ben Johnson, in which Herrick explicitly creates a new “saint” and seemingly mocks “old religion” (lines 3-4), denying God’s agency and choosing to craft a new path for himself. I understand that these poems represent the wide range of Christianity practiced in the Renaissance, but I am curious to see what links there are between the authors’ stances on agency and their ‘ political/particular religious beliefs (i. e. Herrick’s stance as a Royalist? Donne’s Catholic upbringing?).

Re: Homosocial in Rambuss

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Hi Sarah,

I agree with you about how Ramous seems to replace the woman in homosocial relationships with the figure of Christ; I think that ties nicely into our discussion about how Christ(/especially the Holy Spirit) was traditionally seen as more “feminine” than “masculine” — an object of desirability, regardless of Christ’s biological sex. As you suggested, I think this vision of Christ may have helped people to build a more concrete and physical relationship with religion, extending God into all realms of their life (vs. just spiritual).

 

Response to Raisa’s point on “innocence”

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Hi Raisa,

I thought your point about male “innocence” was interesting; I’ve been finding that the idea of innocence seems to be very multi-layered, such as how Hero is innocent/pure, yet capable of killing men with her denials and having enough sexual knowledge to be a “tease.” Apart from being contradictory, innocence also seems to have several different meanings; I wonder how this idea about a man’s “innocency” in the Book of Common Prayer could be more associated with moral innocence/religious purity vs. sexual innocence, since it seems as if there is an expectation for men to be the more sexually experienced ones in the marriage.

Connection between the Ralegh reading and Donne?

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While doing the reading, I was at first surprised by the inclusion of Sir Walter Ralegh’s text from The Discovery of Guiana in a section about Donne. At first glance, they seemed very far apart – Ralegh lived in a different political regime in the 16th century, Donne in the 17th; Ralegh writes in prose about the discovery of El Dorado. This seemed something much more like a fanciful documentary than Donne’s rich verse.

However, when I reached the passage on p.886 about how “Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor wrought,” I started perhaps thinking about how Ralegh here also uses explicit sexual metaphors in a new way – in this case, to describe the virginity and rape/pillaging(?) of a new land. I would be interested to know what others thought about the connection between Ralegh’s text here and Donne.

Re: the word “element”

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Hi Rachel,

I thought your point about this word was really interesting, especially considering the role that the physical elements (the weather/natural forces) play in Twelfth Night; a storm is the catalyst for the plot, when Viola and Sebastian are stranded, while Feste concludes the play with a song about “the wind and the rain.” Fittingly with the consciously-theatrical nature of this play, Feste references how “A great while ago the world begun, / With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,” — reminding the audience that the world of Twelfth Night began with a storm. I’m curious about the connection between performance/disguising your “element” and the natural elements, or if there is even one?

Breaking 4th wall

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I found it interesting that Twelfth Night seems to have an extensive amount of theatricality to it that purposefully breaks the feeling of “reality” and the fourth wall. Besides the multiple gender layering that happens with male boy actor/ Viola/Cesario, I’m noticing a self-awareness in the text that continually points out its artifice as theatre. For example, in Act I, Scene 5 with Viola and Olivia’s first meeting, Viola/Cesario continually addresses the art of acting one’s “part” or role. All of the characters seem to be literally performing roles at one point or another — Viola must act to persuade Olivia, Olivia throws a veil over her face to perform her grieving, and so on.

Late reply to Natalie and Alex: Classical mythology in Spenser

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Sorry to be late on this response, but I was also very fascinated with how Spenser continually mixes Protestant Christianity with Classical mythology. In our first few classes, I remember Professor Kitch saying that education was largely Classics-based and that Latin almost became the key language of all communication. Going off of that, it makes a little more sense to me how the Greek gods and Christian morals can co-exist (seemingly) harmoniously in this world. Just a speculation, but perhaps Classical mythology was seen less as actual “paganism” and regarded more casually as a part of popular culture that was not attached to any particular morality/belief system?

Reply to Raisa

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Hi Raisa,

Thanks for bringing that question up – I’m having a lot of difficulty with The Faerie Queene as well. I’m still working on finding a specific part that I want to respond to, but something really technical that helped me was reading parts of it out loud. Maybe it doesn’t work for everyone (and it certainly is too much to read everything out loud), but reading the more dense stanzas out loud personally helped me in a lot of ways. First, it forced me to slow down, which heightened my awareness of Spenser’s many references and imagery. Second – perhaps because that culture was still very rooted in oral tradition? – it somehow helped me to make better sense of the language/text.

I don’t know if this will help, but good luck!