Louise Glück’s «Persephone the Wanderer» read from a psychoanalytic and Classical Receptions perspective

Abstract

Louise Glück provides a compelling example of Classical Receptions in contemporary poetry. Hence, this paper aims at discussing Glück’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the so-called Homeric Hymn to Demeter and «Persephone the Wanderer», a poem pertaining to Glück’s Averno (2006), attempting to demonstrate the appropriation of the myth of Demeter and Persephone from a psychoanalytic approach. After an introduction to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Foley, 1994), and Louise Glück and her poem «Persephone the Wanderer», I will compare the myth of Demeter and Persephone in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter with Glück’s «Persephone the Wanderer». From a psychoanalytic perspective, Demeter’s psychological state will be addressed while pointing out her motherhood and her grief, and then I will associate the concept of narcissism to both Demeter and Hades in Glück’s poem and its impact on Persephone.