Redeeming the Medusa: An Archetypal Examination of Ted Hughes' "The Iron Woman"

Autor/in	El Nouhy, Eman
Titel	Redeeming the Medusa: An Archetypal Examination of Ted Hughes' "The Iron Woman"
Quelle	In: Children's Literature in Education, 50 (2019) 3, S.347-363 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0045-6713
DOI	10.1007/s10583-017-9327-5
Schlagwörter	Childrens Literature; Females; Novels; Environment; Fear; Figurative Language; Authors; Mythology; Victims + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s literature'; Kinderliteratur; Weibliches Geschlecht; Novel; Roman; Umwelt; Furcht; Author; Autor; Autorin; Mythologie; Victim; Opfer
Abstract	For decades, feminists have tried to dismantle and argue against the image of the Medusa as a figure of female monstrousness. This paper claims that the celebrated British author and poet Ted Hughes, in his novella for children, The Iron Woman, redeemed the Medusa and presented her in a new light that revealed her as a victim, a healer, and a generator of lives. The Iron Woman is an eco-fable that aims at creating environmental awareness amongst teenagers and adults alike. Reading the work of Ted Hughes reveals that he is a staunch believer in the necessity of shocking his readers into truly fathoming the dangers of a deteriorating Mother Nature. This paper will develop two arguments: one concerns global environmental issues, while the second is related directly to the personal life of Ted Hughes. The first argument proposes that Hughes made extensive use of the myth of the Medusa in order to convey a universal message, that Mother Earth cannot be redeemed from humanity's insistence on destroying her unless all human beings are able to delve deep down into their psyche, stare fear in the face and own up to the fact that they are responsible for the decay that has come upon her. The Medusa here is a metaphor for humanity's fear of encountering its own dark deeds. The second argument puts forward a theory that Ted Hughes the man is also implicated in this redemption process, which cannot take place unless he too stares fear in the face and acknowledges his partial responsibility for his wife's suicide. In the second argument, the Medusa becomes a metaphor for a defiled, victimized woman--for Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide shortly after she discovered that Ted Hughes had committed adultery. In much the same manner that Hughes used to "drive through Sylvia's poems", as his poem "The City" reveals, this paper proposes that Hughes appears to have "co-authored" The Iron Woman with Plath by invoking her presence at every turn--that she was his Medusa, and that the Medusa was his muse for this particular novella. More than a muse, the Medusa was a magical healer for Hughes, who believed in the medicinal power of myths. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01