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THE POET AND THE VALKYRIES
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The poetic self in Mario Azzopardi’s collection of poetry entitled Noti mis-Sanatorju tal-Mistici (1995) attempts to define the feminine through the creative transformation of the complexities that inform the situation of women in our times. Naturally, this dimension in Azzopardi cannot be divorced from the spiritual and mystical context which is constantly present, even in his overtly socially committed poetry. I would like to concentrate on a feminist reading of the collection. Generally, creative writing should be regarded as an act of liberation and an attempt at self-definition. The stillness issuing from the apparent absence of a dynamic, confident, lyrical and socially committed poetry by women during this decade imposes itself heavily on Azzopardi’s poetry, imbuing it with the task of presenting an account of female perception of existence as well as in itself being an exploration of this discernment. It can be argued that Azzopardi’s poetry endeavours to reclaim the feminine self which has been alienated due to the neglect of women’s creative development. At the same time it is also an expression of conflicts, contradictions and tensions which antagonise modern women. Delving deep into the female psyche, the poetic self seeks an affinity which, to a certain extent, is mediated through language which in its turn seeks to establish form on feminine primordial chaos. As such, readers are presented with the uncanny quality present in male poetic intuition as it gives expression to women’s profoundest thoughts. The poet grounds female solitude in the ambiguity of nature until the solitary woman, confined within her mysteriousness and elusiveness, is herself transformed into a prayer. Elsewhere, a woman’s existential anxieties are also intimately bound to a definitive socio-political context. In Azzopardi’s early collections of poetry, the traditional female roles provided fertile material which the poet manipulated in order to emphasise their grotesque nature so that the ruinous effigy composed of these stereotypes would crumble. Since these aims are being fulfilled what attracts Azzopardi’s interest and attention are the conflicts women come across as their increased participation in society is giving rise to a new kind of isolation. In understanding this predicament, the poet’s mature commitment is documented by the diverse images of women and femininity clamouring for the readers’ attention. We come across sophisticated, cosmopolitan woman; the female dancer seeking an interpretation of life in auto-eroticism; the teacher who supplements her meagre salary by working as a part-time prostitute, and the female factory workers deprived of a human identity The universality of contemporary female experience is also radiated by poems whose initial socio-political stimulation is superseded by musings and reflections on the vagaries and absurdities of existence. |
The standpoint assumed by Azzopardi is consciously subversive in that it bestows upon ill-treated women the dignity which is denied them. As a poet Azzopardi refrains from regaling readers with an explanation of the numerous forms of inequality, since this would be futile. Instead, “he is the poet hurriedly compiling notes for the laboratory of passion”. Therefore his identification with the Somali woman whose eyes see but do not perceive is an indictment of the burdens and suffering naturally determined and culturally imposed. The interflow between man and woman works on different planes in Azzopardi's lyricism. This interchange is mediated through art. Although stereotypes can be undermined, it is impossible to deny archetypes. Artists do not even conceive of negating them since they contain the hidden realities which are born of the turbulences of emotion. The oscillation between the sharp delineation of seeming female contradictions and ambivalences and the opacity employed in defining the feminine leads the poetic self in Azzopardi to act in a similar fashion to Saul Bellow's Herzog, by trying on the roles which had supported it before and doing them one after another. Irony predominates since none of these roles really fit, though an undercurrent in search of a personal balance is constantly present too. It would be highly simplistic to presuppose that images of femininity in Azzopardi's poetry are defining women in order to subjugate them. Rather, the poetic self is fascinated by the constant metamorphosis undertaken by the various manifestations of femininity. The possibility of conveying them relies on the impact of incisive and stark images relayed through irony and detachment. In Noti mis-Sanatorju tal-Mistici, which lends itself to the title of the collection, the positioning at work does not exclude women from the “lunacy” which accompanies human intellect. In fact the crucial intimation is that a kind of partnership between the sexes is possible. Two female inmates in the sanatorium – Mireille B. and a Hungarian widow - could be Jungian Valkyries acting as instigators for the poet's own potency. Significantly, both of them are creative: Mireille B writes intuitive lyrics while the widow performs as a soprano. However, their presence in an isolated intellectual outpost could also mean that the mental liaison between them and the male recluse has now reached a mark of disillusion. This would also complement readings being given by psycho-sociologists speculating on paradoxical male-female relations at a very complex point in time. These psychodynamics between the sexes are at the heart of Azzopardi's poetry. The grotesque realism highlighted in this piece and in Maxime Castelletti vu par ses Amis is counterpoised by the lyrical intensity of the poems generating a whole array of communicative levels, even when their possibility appears remote. In following these enchanted and ambiguous courses we are conscious of the feminine dislocating the familiar style and idiom and the poetic self in search of difference. |