Papers by Lilith Ayvazyan
Sinner within the saint : the inner dichotomy of the Swinburnian Mary Stuart in Chastelard , 2022
The image of Mary Stuart's character has been shaped chiefly through the works circulating during... more The image of Mary Stuart's character has been shaped chiefly through the works circulating during her imprisonment and following her execution in 1587. After Mary's beheading, her story has been told, retold, and reimagined by countless historians, novelists, tragedians, and poets. The scope of these works is so vast, spreading over space and time, that to cover them all would be a gargantuan if not an impossible task. What makes the story of the tragic Queen so fascinating to both writers and readers of every century following her death, including our own, is the variety, inconsistency, and endless contradiction present in historical accounts and literary works. Mary was treated as a martyr by Catholics, while the Protestants branded her with the image of an adulteress. Her son King James VI of Scotland, despite having neglected his mother in exile and arrest under the rule of Elizabeth I, made use of Mary's execution to strengthen his claims to the British throne. Many tragedies recounting the life of Mary were published during his and his son Charles I's rule. These stories did not cease being written and rewritten even after Charles' execution, which allowed many contemporaries to draw parallels with his grandmother's beheading. Mary's tragedy has been fascinating for many generations simply because it is the tragedy of a real woman full of emotions, drama, and human passions. Mary's story is very controversial, and it has always been challenging to tell where the thin line between truth and fabrication blurs. Retelling her story, especially during the reign of Elizabeth I and the direct heirs of Mary, bore a political nature. John D. Staines writes, "[a]s soon as a writer represents the death of king or queen, even a tyrant, he or she introduces sympathy into the political equation" (181). Thus, it is not surprising that most writers who touched upon the
Armenian Folia Anglistika, 2021
The Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) is famous for his uniquely "bizarre" fe... more The Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) is famous for his uniquely "bizarre" female characters. His contemporary critics as well as many of the researchers who touched upon his work have interpreted his female characters to be "obsessive," "masochistic," and in some cases even "sadistic." Phaedra is one of his characters who suffered the most because of this misconception. Rarely referenced at all, she has been regarded as a one-dimensional "masochist" who lacks psychological and emotional depth and whose only driving force is her desire for death. However, a close reading of Swinburne's short poem reveals Phaedra's innermost anxieties and places her in the narrative of the Swinburnian femme damnée inspired by Les Fleurs du Mal of the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Swinburne's "Phaedra" is remarkable in that it also serves as an exceptional representation of Sappho (c. 630-c. 570 BC) in Victorian England. This paper highlights Swinburne's aversion towards the Victorian mock-morality, as well as some of his lifelong influences. Furthermore, this paper defines Phaedra in a new light by considering the classical originals, Sappho's and Baudelaire's works, and even a twentieth-century retelling by the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941).
Colloquia, 2020
The 1860s was the decade which defined Algernon Charles Swinburnes career (1837-1909), just as it... more The 1860s was the decade which defined Algernon Charles Swinburnes career (1837-1909), just as it was the decade in which he was most criticised; it set the tone for future critics and researchers who would venture upon studying Swinburnes poetry. Swinburne published quite a few books during this decadecollections of poems as well as dramas. Some of his earlier works were dismissed, while others, like Atalanta in Calydon, were praised for their great rhythm and exceptional writing style. However, Swinburne came to undeniable fame and infamy after publishing his Poems and Ballads in 1866. Swinburnes collection of poems was deemed unacceptable by the standards of the Victorian mock-morality. Many reviewers, both anonymous and named, came forward to criticise the young poet by calling his work immoral, disgusting, tasteless, and so on. The backlash was so strong that Swinburnes publisher, Moxon, withdrew Poems and Ballads from circulation less than a month after its publication. It cannot be denied that Swinburnes poems, indeed, were telling stories based on themes unusual for the readers of the nineteenth century: death, sexuality, incest, rape, and other similar topics were the basis for most of the poems in Poems and Ballads. However, these are only the superficial aspects of his poems. By referencing only these, the philosophy of Swinburnes poems is pushed back, ignored, and forgotten. It is most unfortunate, that most of Swinburnes early critics and the majority of his researchers in the 20th century do not get past this superficial veil of his poems. One of the themes that is most commonly observed throughout Swinburnes career is love after death. While this notion was brought to its peak in the poets masterpiece, Tristram of Lyonesse (1882), it is also present in his earlier works. Some of Swinburnes poems give a new meaning to the concepts of love and death. Most importantly, the love which is most often observed in Poems and Ballads is not the pure emotion so very familiar to the Victorians. On the contrary, it is an emotion fuelled by lust and desire. Phaedra, Dolores, Faustinethese poems which were given the names of their heroines, put the innermost feelings and desires of their protagonists on the front. Swinburne portrays the men whom they love getting torn apart by that very same love. The three archetypes of femme fatale, femme * I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Noriyuki Harada of Keio University, as well as Professor Takayuki Tatsumi of Keio University, for their guidance and valuable advice as well as insightful comments and suggestions.
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Papers by Lilith Ayvazyan