The Appropriation Of The Genre Of Nuptial Poetry By Katharina Lescailje (1649–1711)
Year: 2010
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Love is a conqueror and a violator.When a bride is captured by Love, pity arises instead of jealousy or admiration.These are not themes one expects to encounter in a poem written to commemorate the cheerful occasion of marriage.Yet in some of the nuptial poems by the Dutch poet Katharina Lescailje (1649-1711) these are dominant themes.Marriage in her poems is often represented as a prison, which brings an end to one's freedom.Recent research has regarded this as remarkable.On the basis of a semiotic reading of poems Lescailje wrote for female friends, Lia van Gemert concluded that we should consider the possibility that Lescailje harboured lesbian feelings for them. 1 Van Gemert bases her argument partly on a nuptial poem.The negative tone Lescailje's poem takes to marriage could according to her reveal feelings of love for the bride and jealousy towards the bridegroom. 2 Ellen Grabowsky has offered resistance to this interpretation on the basis of archival research revealing biographical evidence that problematises Van Gemert's interpretations. 3 Grabowsky also points to similarities between this poem and some other nuptial poems by Lescailje.She contends that the negativity towards marriage in the poems for some women bears 1 Gemert L. van, "Hiding Behind Words?Lesbianism in 17th-century Dutch Poetry", Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present 2, 1 (1995) 11-44; and "De vrouwenzucht van Katharina Lescailje", in
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: Nina Geerdink
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W878905660