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The Symbolization of the Female Body in Western Culture from Ancient Greece to the Transmodern Period

  • Susana Onega
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Symbolism 2020
This chapter is in the book Symbolism 2020

Abstract

Ernst Cassirer’s definition of man as an animal symbolicum conventionally inaugurates the study of the role of symbolization in the human construction of reality. The imaginary truths about reality and identity expressed through complex systems of symbolization, from ritual, myth and religion to art and literature, are fundamental for social cohesion as they reflect the dominant paradigms of the group. The article traces the evolution of the symbolization of the female body from ancient Greece until the present according to the successive paradigm shifts. Parmenides’s division of the cosmos into paired opposites, with woman as the necessary other for the definition of male subjectivity, initiates the symbolization of the female body as monstrous. Prefigured by the nurturing/devouring duality of Mother Earth and mythical women/goddesses like the Medusa, this symbolization expresses the male fear of female sexuality and agency. The resymbolization of Mother Earth as the Virgin Mary and of woman as a domestic angel are expressions of this fear. Transmitted to children by cautionary tales like ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Cinderella’, it condemns women to pay for social integration with submission, purity, and objectification. In the Enlightenment, the conflation of the male desire to subdue woman/Mother Earth with the project of the Empire reactivated the myth of Zeus’s rape of Europe as the raping of the woman/land motif. In the postmodernist era, feminist writers contested Freud’s and Lacan’s endorsements of female monstrosity by creating grotesque angelic monsters, bisexual triangles, incestuous theatre troupes, and music-hall transvestites. The recent emergence of the transmodern paradigm has brought about a new generation of writers seeking to redefine subjectivity from a holistic and empathetic transpersonal perspective, thus providing a humane and ethical alternative to the oppositional system of privileging and bonding transmitted to us from our ancient Greek ancestors.

Abstract

Ernst Cassirer’s definition of man as an animal symbolicum conventionally inaugurates the study of the role of symbolization in the human construction of reality. The imaginary truths about reality and identity expressed through complex systems of symbolization, from ritual, myth and religion to art and literature, are fundamental for social cohesion as they reflect the dominant paradigms of the group. The article traces the evolution of the symbolization of the female body from ancient Greece until the present according to the successive paradigm shifts. Parmenides’s division of the cosmos into paired opposites, with woman as the necessary other for the definition of male subjectivity, initiates the symbolization of the female body as monstrous. Prefigured by the nurturing/devouring duality of Mother Earth and mythical women/goddesses like the Medusa, this symbolization expresses the male fear of female sexuality and agency. The resymbolization of Mother Earth as the Virgin Mary and of woman as a domestic angel are expressions of this fear. Transmitted to children by cautionary tales like ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Cinderella’, it condemns women to pay for social integration with submission, purity, and objectification. In the Enlightenment, the conflation of the male desire to subdue woman/Mother Earth with the project of the Empire reactivated the myth of Zeus’s rape of Europe as the raping of the woman/land motif. In the postmodernist era, feminist writers contested Freud’s and Lacan’s endorsements of female monstrosity by creating grotesque angelic monsters, bisexual triangles, incestuous theatre troupes, and music-hall transvestites. The recent emergence of the transmodern paradigm has brought about a new generation of writers seeking to redefine subjectivity from a holistic and empathetic transpersonal perspective, thus providing a humane and ethical alternative to the oppositional system of privileging and bonding transmitted to us from our ancient Greek ancestors.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword from the Editors V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Special Focus: Symbols of the Future. The Future of Symbolism
  5. Introduction: Symbols of the Future. The Future of Symbolism 1
  6. Symbol’s Risks: A Note on the Interrelationship of Art and the Use of Symbols 19
  7. ‘Symbolic Futures’ as Investment 33
  8. On the Future Role of Symbols in Environmental Modelling 51
  9. The Symbolization of the Female Body in Western Culture from Ancient Greece to the Transmodern Period 69
  10. Genre and Utopia, or 48 Hrs. for the Future: Perspectives in Media Aesthetics 89
  11. The Past Is Immutable: Technology’s Symbolism and the Future in Black Mirror 111
  12. “Players and painted stage”: Symbolizing the Future in Shaw’s Back to Methuselah 123
  13. Herzlian Matrix: Theme Parks, Promised Lands, and Simulacra 139
  14. Reading the Future through the Past: Symbolism in Amitav Ghosh’s Anthropogenic Fiction 167
  15. The Cyborg, Symbol of the Evolution of the Human, or The Human of the Future 191
  16. “An ocean of thought”: AI, Robots, and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and People Like You (2019) 205
  17. Book Reviews
  18. Sarah C. Bishop. Undocumented Storytellers: Narrating the Immigrant Rights Movement 223
  19. Sandra Dinter. Childhood in the Contemporary English Novel 229
  20. Johannes Riquet. The Aesthetics of Island Space: Perception, Ideology, Geopoetics 235
  21. Lyndsey Stonebridge. Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees 241
  22. List of Contributors 247
  23. Index 251
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110716962-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword from the Editors V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Special Focus: Symbols of the Future. The Future of Symbolism
  5. Introduction: Symbols of the Future. The Future of Symbolism 1
  6. Symbol’s Risks: A Note on the Interrelationship of Art and the Use of Symbols 19
  7. ‘Symbolic Futures’ as Investment 33
  8. On the Future Role of Symbols in Environmental Modelling 51
  9. The Symbolization of the Female Body in Western Culture from Ancient Greece to the Transmodern Period 69
  10. Genre and Utopia, or 48 Hrs. for the Future: Perspectives in Media Aesthetics 89
  11. The Past Is Immutable: Technology’s Symbolism and the Future in Black Mirror 111
  12. “Players and painted stage”: Symbolizing the Future in Shaw’s Back to Methuselah 123
  13. Herzlian Matrix: Theme Parks, Promised Lands, and Simulacra 139
  14. Reading the Future through the Past: Symbolism in Amitav Ghosh’s Anthropogenic Fiction 167
  15. The Cyborg, Symbol of the Evolution of the Human, or The Human of the Future 191
  16. “An ocean of thought”: AI, Robots, and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and People Like You (2019) 205
  17. Book Reviews
  18. Sarah C. Bishop. Undocumented Storytellers: Narrating the Immigrant Rights Movement 223
  19. Sandra Dinter. Childhood in the Contemporary English Novel 229
  20. Johannes Riquet. The Aesthetics of Island Space: Perception, Ideology, Geopoetics 235
  21. Lyndsey Stonebridge. Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees 241
  22. List of Contributors 247
  23. Index 251
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