The Semiotic and the Symbolic: The Rejuvenative Effect of Writing in Mary Steele’s “Sonnet, 1795”

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the eighteenth-century British poet, Mary Steele’s “Sonnet, 1795” in terms of the recuperative power of the act of writing and the relationship between the semiotic and the symbolic. The study suggests that the sonnet serves as the poetic testament to the symbolic and the real life of the historical author who aims to manage her emotional suffering and mental agony via the therapeutic act of writing. The female author has a confrontation with what is to be repressed on the symbolic through the poetic production on the semiotic that bears a witness to her traumatic experiences and physical losses. Through negation and sublimation, the author attains to order her chaotic cognitive and affective states and develop an awareness about the subconsciousness and what psychologically ails her. Therefore, she does not intend to improve her poetic abilities and self-actualize as an aspiring author being in search of a feminine sublime, but rather seeks refuge against the symbolic and applies poetry as a therapeutic device and a way of escaping from the reality. Within this context, there is a correlation between the symbolic and the semiotic, between the authorial interest in poetry and the inner motives of the female poet. Against this background, the study employs the theory of Julia Kristeva regarding the liaison between the literary creation and the literary figure, the redemptive power the poetics offers for the authorial persona and the renewing effect of the poetic production.