POETRY OF RUSSIAN AND CHINESE FEMALE POETS A.P. BUNINA AND LI QINGZHAO: CONVERGENCES AND DIFFERENCES

This article is devoted to the analysis of typological similarities and differences in the works of Russian and Chinese poetesses using the example of Anna Bunina and Li Qingzhao. These poetesses weren’t contemporaries, their lives fell on different historical eras, but the work of both became the starting point for women's literature in their countries, and this is the first feature that unites them. The article gives a brief description of the creativity of both poetesses, identifies a range of similar topics and common features of their artistic approaches. It is noted that both poetesses for the first time made an attempt to comprehend the essence of women's poetry and the essence of poetry in general, and their conclusions turn out to be surprisingly similar, despite the difference in cultures and historical eras to which they belonged.

Gender and Verse: Religion in New Zealand Women's Poetry, 1970-2019

<p>This thesis explores the remarkable, surprising and enduring presence of religion within the writings of New Zealand women poets since the 1970s. Analysing a comprehensive range of poems, I argue that religion is a dynamic and compelling feature of women’s poetry, emerging in a number of distinctive forms and tones. Using a thematic analysis, I explore religion in relation to domesticities, body and flesh, and whenua/land. I show that women poets deploy and rework religious ideas in ways that illuminate their gendered perspectives and experiences. Arguing that religion should be brought back into the centre of the scholarly analysis of New Zealand literature, I advance a fresh approach to the concept of religion. This framework acknowledges the interdependence and mutual imbrication of ‘religion’ and the ‘secular’, and also facilitates attention to ‘spirituality’. This expansive framework affords careful investigation into the interrelationships between all three of these modern categories. Having shown that religion permeates New Zealand women’s poetry and that attending to religion’s presence is vital for interpretation, I argue for a bona fide cross- disciplinary conversation between religious studies and literary studies; a revitalised investigation on ‘religion and literature’ will be productive for both fields.</p>

Gender and Verse: Religion in New Zealand Women's Poetry, 1970-2019

<p>This thesis explores the remarkable, surprising and enduring presence of religion within the writings of New Zealand women poets since the 1970s. Analysing a comprehensive range of poems, I argue that religion is a dynamic and compelling feature of women’s poetry, emerging in a number of distinctive forms and tones. Using a thematic analysis, I explore religion in relation to domesticities, body and flesh, and whenua/land. I show that women poets deploy and rework religious ideas in ways that illuminate their gendered perspectives and experiences. Arguing that religion should be brought back into the centre of the scholarly analysis of New Zealand literature, I advance a fresh approach to the concept of religion. This framework acknowledges the interdependence and mutual imbrication of ‘religion’ and the ‘secular’, and also facilitates attention to ‘spirituality’. This expansive framework affords careful investigation into the interrelationships between all three of these modern categories. Having shown that religion permeates New Zealand women’s poetry and that attending to religion’s presence is vital for interpretation, I argue for a bona fide cross- disciplinary conversation between religious studies and literary studies; a revitalised investigation on ‘religion and literature’ will be productive for both fields.</p>

Intimacy and its violation: on the experience of illness in contemporary women's poetry

This article discusses selected aspects of the problem of self-perception by a sick individual, specific to the poetry of Polish women of the last few decades. The aim of the analysis is to show that the body is central to the illness experience and that a new type of intimacy appears in connection with its ailment. This is a „clinical intimacy”, the specificity of which is defined by a confrontation with suffering, the proliferation of the feeling of isolation, the intensity of emotions related to making the body public, its discovery and exposure in a hospital setting. The issue of „gender expropriation” in a marginal situation is also important, as is the scar, wound, physical violation of the body boundary, read as the „punctum” of the patient's body. The interpretation emphasises the individualization of artistic representations of the aforementioned aspects of „clinical intimacy”. The anthropological research perspective adopted in the sketch allows for the diagnosis of the subject matter in the context of the process of shaping subjective identity.

Literary Reception of War in the Contemporary Georgian Women’s Poetry

War has been reflected in national cultures and literature of every country, as it is related to sharp and turbulent emotions. The fear of death, tension, heroic pathos and suffering, following every war, gives it esthetic value and certain romantic touch too. Georgian-Ossetian conflict, war in Abkhazia, civil war and Georgian-Russian war have clearly been reflected in the literature created at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, both in prose and poetry. In the presented report I will discuss Georgian women’s poetry, in which war is a literary reception and poems are the space for the reflection of emotions caused by war. In 2020, were published 2 volumes of the Almanac – Without Limits – which include texts by Georgian woman poets and writers, dedicated to war. Accordingly, the main literary material when preparing the report was the first, poetry volume of the aforementioned Almanac. The thesis does not consider discussion of war reception in general, in contemporary poetry, but only in the works by contemporary woman poets. There are radically different opinions on whether or not anthologies must differ according to gender and that art and its creator – artist – do not have an art-gender. It is true that art is universal and stands above any ethnic, race, religious, gender or age affiliations; however, we cannot ignore the fact that all these criteria are revealed themselves in literary works. Therefore, women’s poetry is specific and woman is always seen in its invisible nuances. In view of the research, it appeared to be very interesting and essential, how the war topic has been accepted and processed by contemporary women’s poetry. Contexts of Russian occupation, Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian ethnic conflicts, civil wars, formed as the new, post-soviet stereotypes, have clearly been reflected in Georgian women’s poetry; while postmodernism has appeared to be the favorable space for ignoring the Soviet clichés.

Li Qingzhao and A. P. Bunina: difficult fates of women’s poetry

Despite the fact that Li Qingzhao and Anna Petrovna Bunina were bound by neither geographical affiliation or time, their contemporaries called them the Chinese and Russian Sappho. This is substantiated by the consonance of their poems with the lyrics of the Ancient Greek poetess, sensuality of their poems, as well as their independent position atypical for the women of their eras. This article draws parallels between the biographies of the two prominent poetesses, each of whom is considered the founder of women's poetry in their homeland. Although both poetesses are widely known and considered the pioneers of women's literature, their works are compared virtually for the first time. Besides the high social status and good education, the poetesses are interrelated by the fact that their fates transgressed the traditional canon of women's behavior: instead of patriarchal family life, they have chosen creative self-realization. The uniqueness of their position, which placed them in the focus of public attention, and in a way made them pariahs, on the other hand gave them the freedom in choosing problematic and literary language. This allowed them to become the founders of women's poetry and develop their own literary style. Namely this circumstance typologically apposes the works of the two poetesses, which are eight centuries apart from each other. The theme of their poetry is remarkably similar; however, the imagery differs significantly, since it is justified by the literary tradition of their country.