“The Ancients Taught Me How to Sound Modern”: Mythological Allusions in A. E. Stallings’s poems

Abstract

In her works, the American poet A. E. Stallings avails herself of classical mythology to discuss contemporary topics and issues, establishing an interesting mixture of antiquity and modernity. Her poems are rich in allusions to popular myths and several mythological figures even recur throughout her collections – such as Penelope, Persephone, and the Minotaur. Consequently, this thesis aims to explore A. E. Stallings’s employment of mythology in her poetry with the purpose of focusing on how she manages to use ancient myths to meditate or comment on present-day situations and problems. The first chapter aims attention at the recent surge of interest that mythological retellings awakened in contemporary authors and artists, including Stallings. Additionally, it seeks to investigate the peculiar combination of mythology, activism, and mundanity present in Stallings’s poems. The second chapter focuses on Stallings’s concern for the mythological figures who were typically ignored or silenced in ancient times, like women and monstrous creatures. To fight against their dismissal, she provides them with the opportunity to tell their own stories through her poems. The third chapter is centered around Stallings’s out-and-out obsession with the Greek Underworld and her preoccupation with relationship struggles. In fact, she examines love and death through the filter of mythology, curiously developing a link between these two topics in her poetry.