Engendering autobiographies : Daphne Marlatt's written body
Date
1990
Authors
Heaton, Karen Mary
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Although the personal nature of Daphne Marlatt's poetry has long been acknowledged, little attention has been paid by critics to the autobiographical nature of her work. This thesis examines Daphne Marlatt as a revisionist autobiographer who destabilizes a patriarchal genre, traditional autobiography, through the blending of genres, the intersubjective self, and collaboration with other artists. More specifically, I trace Marlatt's increasing experimentation with the autobiographical act in What Matters (1980), How Hug a Stone (1983), and Touch to My Tongue (1984).
The introduction explores the problems of a woman writing in the traditionally masculine genre of autobiography. The humanist emphasis on the individual in traditional autobiography privileges male autobiographers because questions of gender are not raised. Women's autobiographies are devalued because they do not fit the male patterns. In this chapter , I also outline psychoanalytic theories about the formation of the subject because the concept of a mutable subject constituted in language is empowering for autobiographers like Daphne Marlatt.
The second chapter focuses on What Matters, a journal with poetic sections and Marlatt's most self- reflexive autobiography. Marlatt attempts to justify herself and her writing according to a series of masculine others. She raises theoretical concerns about intersubjectivity as she experiences the mediation of self by other in her pregnancy and subsequent relationship with her son, Kit.
The third chapter examines the relationships of self and other, self and mother, in How Hug a Stone (poems framed by journal entries). The mediation of self begun in What Matters through Kit is intensified as Marlatt incorporates the voices of others in this search for her mother, motherland, and mothertongue, a search which leads to Touch to My Tongue.
The fourth chapter explores Touch to My Tongue (poetic essay and poems essaying, with photographs by Cheryl Sourkes) as a collaborative autobiography. Marlatt includes the work of other women artists, Sourkes and Betsy Warland, within the context of this autobiography. Touch to My Tongue celebrates Marlatt's lesbian relationship and calls for a return to "mothertongue," language freed of its patriarchal overlay. I suggest, however, that Marlatt flirts with essentialism in her desire to return to the origin, to the Mother.
Writing of and through her body, Daphne Marlatt (en)genders autobiography with What Matters, How Hug a Stone, and Touch to My Tongue. Her movement from alienation to celebration parallels her increasing involvement in the feminist community. Daphne Marlatt refuses the singular auto of autobiography in her celebration of women's desires.