이진아, "[팸필리아가 앰필란써스에게 부르는 노래]: 여성적 자아와 큐피드"

Jin-Ah Lee, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus: Female Subject and Cupid

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore Pamphilia’s construction of her own
subject as a woman and prince through her relationship with Cupid in Pamphilia
to Amphilanthus. Petrarchan discourse conventionally includes the danger of
subjection and loss of self of the poet-lover. Mary Wroth creates a female
persona Pamphilia to explore the emotional and psychological struggles in her
experiences of love and dramatizes the conflict between passionate surrender
and self-affirmation of female self in Pamphilia's relationship with Cupid which
appears as sometimes a mischievous boy and some times a mature and virtuous
monarch. Cupid is in Jung’s terms Pamphilia's animus, which envisages her
self-sovereignty as a woman and prince. As a lover Pamphilia wants to subject
herself to Cupid to gain his favor, and yet she finds herself so intrigued by the
infantile and self-centered aspects of love, the mischievous boy Cupid. Her
subjugation in love is analogous to her subordinate relationship to men in a
patriarchal society, and so threatens her princely subject that has been
constructed by a discipline of dominance and rule. The contradictory female and
male aspects of her subject often entrap her in the labyrinths of love. She thus
seeks a new type of relationship in love, and in the “Crowne of Sonetts” turns
to a just and esteemed monarch Cupid. By fully yielding to the wise and
virtuous Cupid’s sovereignty, Pamphilia finds herself empowered by his virtue,
now her virtue, constancy that ensures her the sovereignty over her self as well
as her kingdom.

Key Words

Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, sonnet sequence, female subject, Cupid, gender, power, Urania.