Journal of Research: THE BEDE ATHENÆUM
Year : 2010, Volume : 1, Issue : 1
First page : ( 51) Last page : ( 57)
Print ISSN : 0976-0598.

Rich's ‘Dream’ and ‘The Drive’: A Critique of Power

Babu K. T.

Department of English, St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth P.O., Trichur -680 611, KERALA, INDIA.

Received:  May,  2009; Accepted:  July,  2009.

Abstract

“Rich's ‘Dream’ and ‘the Drive’: A Critique of Power” focuses on the subversive undercurrents of power. Adrienne Rich continually defines and redefines her concept of power until she can reject power-as-force for the power-to-transform. Rich's concept of transforming power, the energy of creation, shapes her development of a female aesthetic. We can observe in a survey of her poetry the difficult process by which the woman poet Rich moves toward a new understanding of the power of the poet and the power of woman. Naturally, the political and cultural climate of post World War II America conditioned her process. Her later conceived notion of transformative power is delineated through the analysis of selected poems that celebrate the lives of women. In effect, Rich's poetry which constitutes an indictment of the power structures ensures a ‘drive to connect’ visualizing a new world order in her dream of a common language. Therefore, the discussion is limited to the consideration of Rich's notion of power reflected in key stories, myths, allusions, and themes in her writings in the first three decades of her career.

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