The Performance and Interrogation of 'Generic Lives' and Gendered Selves in the Confessional Poetry of John Berryman and Anne Sexton (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine", language: English, abstract: This thesis aims to examine the interrogation and performance of generic lives and gendered selves in the poetry of John Berryman and Anne Sexton. In doing so I will give answers to the following questions: In how far did social norms influence the lyrical I's way of thinking and acting?

Or were those societal restrictions excluded from the isolated situation of the poem? Are gender conventions more present in poems featuring a female persona? Not more than 60 years ago North America was strongly biased with unrealistic gender roles. Women were stereotyped as housewives whose greatest struggles were keeping husband and children satisfied, the household and their good looking. However, thousands of women missed to meet those expectations and considered themselves as individual failures. However, not only women suffered from social etiquette that was imposed on them. The excessive promotion of virility equally troubled many men.

Then, in the 1960s, there was a significant change. Influenced by the radical formations of various citizen movements gender concepts were challenged - not only in a political context but also within the arts. For the first time after centuries, poetry, again, dealt with political issues. This was the time of the Beats and the Confessional Poets. The latter group is often associated with poets such as John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.

The works of Berryman and Sexton will be examined in more depth. Both of them used their poems to express their personal views on the conventions of the period. What was intended to serve as a form of self-therapy turned into poetic empowerment
for many Americans who experienced similar circumstances, but were too afraid to talk about it publicly. In this respect, Anne Sexton has often been considered as a precursor of following feminist movements. The lyric of the male poets of the time, however, has mostly been ignored in this context. Both poets were working during the 1950s and 60s, both experienced socially imposed gender treatments, both lived the 'generic life'. The expression refers to the seemingly predetermined lifestyle of these poets including parental difficulties in their childhood, excessive alcohol and drug abuse, mental disorders, publicly displayed affairs, as well as suicidal tendencies.

While Sexton's poetry continuously tackles the problem of gender conventions, Berryman's remarks on the topic are rather subtle.