For 'mythical' read 'empathic' : Paul Muldoon's 'Third Epistle to Timothy' and 'The Bangle (Slight Return)' as exercises in empathy

Title: For 'mythical' read 'empathic' : Paul Muldoon's 'Third Epistle to Timothy' and 'The Bangle (Slight Return)' as exercises in empathy
Author: Pietrzak, Wit
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2018, vol. 44, iss. 1, pp. [153]-165
Extent
[153]-165
  • ISSN
    0524-6881 (print)
    1805-0867 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
The paper focuses on the notion of empathy in contrast to systemic ethics in" Paul Muldoon's two poems, "Third Epistle to Timothy" and "The Bangle (Slight Return)," from his 1998 collection, Hay. Ethics is here entwined with what T. S. Eliot described as the mythical method. It is argued here that Muldoon resorts to the formal paradigm but works his way beyond the transcendental, religion-motivated position adopted by Eliot, particularly in his later social critiques. On the one hand, in "third Epistle to Timothy," I investigate the biblical context of the poem to demonstrate that all externally-imposed codes of ethic can be subject to corruption. On the other, in "The Bangle (Slight Return)," I show that the mythical references, rather than corroborate an elitist agenda, indicate that to embody an experience of another person's different a polymorphous language is needed that would simultaneously be used with full responsibility for whatever it should evoke.
Note
The article has been written within the framework of the project financed by The National Science Centre, Cracow, Poland, pursuant to the decision number DEC 2017/25/B/HS2/02099.
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