조이 하조의 시에서의 에로틱한 사랑

Erotic Love in Joy Harjo’s Poetry: With a Focus on Its Binary Imagery

This study aims to discuss the binary imagery in Joy Harjo’s erotic love poetry. In one group of poems, the imagery is devoted principally to portraying the joy and power of erotic love. The images of the moon, flowers, parts of woman’s body, fire, a flying hawk, wind, uranium, and electrical reactions are used in those poems. The other group presents images which portray aspects of the darker side of erotic love. Some metaphors used are war, blood, cold climate, turquoise and bruises. Even if Joy Harjo argued for the joy and power of erotic love in her prose pieces, the experiences of erotic love shown through imagery in her poems are binary in their characteristics―affirmative forces as well as destructive forces. We can interpret the binary aspects of imagery regarding erotic love derived from the character of eros that can be both bitter and sweet.