Home: An Un-becoming Creativity—Death, Destruction, and Solitude in the Making of Poems and Path to Individuation

Abstract

The poet writes her way into the world and the self, an act that often requires dissolution of psychological, intellectual, and aesthetic constructs that no longer feel true or excite new vision. We can trace these impulses to mythopoetic forms manifest across epochs and creative genres. This dissertation integrates a variety of visionary and literary sources to demonstrate the “un-becoming” acts that foster passage to poiesis and narrative shifts. From the epics of Homer to ancient religious practices to alchemy to modern philosophy and poetry, we often require solitude and dying to nurture imaginal expansion. Carl Jung understood that death, the unconscious, and the inner instinct at play with the things of the world are directly connected to creativity. Similarly, writers like Wendy Doniger, Adrienne Rich, and Julia Kristeva help to dispel patriarchal tropes and champion the re-visioning of more authentic feminist perspectives on the poetic process. Following Gaston Bachelard’s suggestion that what shelters the imagination may be defined as home, imaginal impulses cultivate individual agency and are a profound part of the greater creative and life sources. Conversely, home may be considered something far more ineffable and mysterious than the proverbial four-walled abode. Not only is home a non-static entity, our sense of home must keep evolving, just as human beings must keep recreating on their path to becoming. Nietzsche suggests that metaphor, in the form of poetry and myth, becomes the method by which we articulate the complexities of human experience. Similarly, Paul Ricoeur states that poetry is a living thing that revives our perception. Through it, we are made aware of our capacity for seeing the world anew. This dissertation seeks to recognize the existence of patterns in mythological narratives, religious practice, and modern poetry where death, destruction, and solitude feel intrinsic to psychological renewal and innovation that keep myth alive. I include original poetry inspired during the shaping of the theoretical work to demonstrate how destruction and nekyia operate in the revision of mythological tropes and the poetic act.