거식증과 치유의 시학

Anorexia and the Poetics of Healing in Louise Glück’s Poetry

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This paper explores the poetry of Louise Elizabeth Glück from the perspective of anorexia and healing. Glück’s poems cause us to reflect on how destructive the aesthetic standards modern society implicitly imposes on the female body can be. Glück suffered from anorexia and developed self-understanding through a process of psychoanalysis. As she analyzes her desires and language, she discovers the splitting voices in her mind. The poetic subject who observes the voices objectively— sympathizes with the pain and expresses it in the poetic language to deliver a sense of healing. Her compulsion to receive attention and recognition from the Other, her mother, manifests itself in anorexia, which has a fatal risk that sometimes brings death. Still, on the other hand, it has a subversive aspect to make her resist what is imposed on women in general. Glück’s poetry transcends the dichotomy of gender and provides a healing effect that allows readers to empathize with others and nature. Through various voices—including a gardener, flowers, trees, and God—the poetic subject is revived with the will to accept pain and the ability to perceive life objectively.