Psyche and Pygmalion: The Heart’s Desires Revised in Louisa May Alcott’s “A Marble Woman”
Taking my cue from Hans Blumenberg’s notion of the “work on myth,” according to which myth is always in the process of revision, this article explores Alcott’s reconfiguration of the Psyche and Pygmalion myths in her novella “A Marble Woman” in conjunction with the nineteenth-century context of wome...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Association for American Studies
2022-10-01
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/18739 |
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| Summary: | Taking my cue from Hans Blumenberg’s notion of the “work on myth,” according to which myth is always in the process of revision, this article explores Alcott’s reconfiguration of the Psyche and Pygmalion myths in her novella “A Marble Woman” in conjunction with the nineteenth-century context of women’s quest for self-possession in marriage. Alcott rewrites Psyche’s curious gaze at the sleeping Amor as the heroine’s, i.e., Cecil’s, self-possessed rescue of her legal guardian and later husband and Pygmalion’s animation of his Galatea as Cecil’s superb imitation of wifely adoration. However, Cecil’s quest for self-possession in marriage is not successful until Yorke acknowledges her beauty in body and mind. |
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| ISSN: | 1991-9336 |