Abstract
This article will discuss the way Ophelia’s end is portrayed by the fin de siecle poet Renee Vivien's two French poems “La Chanson d’Ophelie” and “A la perverse Ophelie”. It will examine how, between the first and the second poem, Vivien’s Ophelia shifts from an image of purity and purification of sins by water, as suggested by some previous French poets rewriting the heroine’s death such as Rimbaud, to an icon of perversion who embodies the ambiguities and the demonic aspects of the decadent female figure. First translating Gertrude’s lyricism towards the heroine’s end and imitating the Bard, then challenging his authorship and reshaping a poetical feminine space where men are excluded, Vivien seems to place her poetry and her Ophelia in an agonistic position with respect to the English canon. The poetic imaginary of Ophelia’s drowning in deathly waters blends with other literary references as it is regenerates in another cultural context.
Highlights
Shakespeare’s Ophelia is a complex figure of split and ambiguity
Pauline Tarn (1877–1909), who published in French under the name Renée Vivien, was among those poets intrigued by Ophelia-like self-annihilating female icons
By analysing poetical renditions of Ophelia, I will focus on how Vivien transforms the character from a pure and unselfconscious heroine to an icon of perversion, which amplifies the ambiguities connected to the decadent femme fatale and embodies her enchanting feminine power
Summary
Shakespeare’s Ophelia is a complex figure of split and ambiguity. An array of negative aspects characterises her: Ophelia can be seen as a figure of lack—whether a lack of language, since “her speech is nothing” (Shakespeare 373), a “lack of character”, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge pointed out (362), or a lack of phallus, as Jacques Lacan affirmed (Showalter 77). Pauline Tarn (1877–1909), who published in French under the name Renée Vivien, was among those poets intrigued by Ophelia-like self-annihilating female icons.
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