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Heroine in Literature and Film as Expressive of the Twelve Natural Seasons

Author: 
Year:
Pages:204
ISBN:0-7734-4257-X
978-0-7734-4257-3
Price:$179.95
Written as a companion piece to complement Professor Eriksson’s prior groundbreaking analysis, The Appearance of the Mythic Hero in the Twelve Seasons of Nature, this text, focusing on the heroine’s experience, does more than just provide the other half to the hero’s journey. Instead, The Heroine In Literature and Filam as Expressive of the Twelve Natural Seasons further develops Eriksson’s original insight in a thought-provoking analysis that comprehensively details the correspondences between the dramas of human relationships and the seasons of life that shape the feminine quest for fulfillment within a larger cosmological paradigm.

The heroine in literature and film is an expression of seasonal occurrence. Her behavior exhibits, symbolically, the response of the earth to the sun at a given time of the year, beginning at the March equinox and proceeding through twelve seasons. She assumes, then, twelve distinct characterizations. Her conflicts, successes, and failures reflect the natural conditions of Early Spring, Mid-Spring, Late Spring, and so on, in an aesthetic development that converts traditional mythic dynamics, based in agriculture, into story lines in ancient and modern configurations. Her character in a given season suggests the dynamism of that season as reinterpreted into the drama of human relationships.

Reviews

“This scholarly work opens up a new terrain of aesthetic appreciation and psychological analysis of literary and cinematic works. While written in a way that offers many references for scholarly investigation, Eriksson’s text is equally accessible to non-academics who share an interest in the subject and a desire to understand their own experiences in a cosmic context more intimately connected to the larger cycles of life.”
Professor Catherine Lipnick,
English Department,
Suffolk County Community College


“The central thesis of the study is that heroines from an exceedingly varied list of sources reflect the “natural conditions of Early Spring, Mid-Spring, late Spring, and so on.”…Thus powerful insights and fruitful juxtapositions will constantly delight the reader.”
Professor Turhan,
English Department,
Suffolk County Community College


Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapters:
1: Early Spring: the Heroine as Life-Source
2: Mid-Spring: the Heroine as Beloved
3: Late Spring: the Heroine as Judge, Accuser, and Accused
4: Early Summer: the Heroine in Emerging Independence
5: Mid-Summer: the Heroine as Femme Fatale
6: Late Summer: the Heroine as Virgin
7: Early Autumn: the Heroine as New Woman
8: Mid-Autumn: the Heroine in Danger
9: Late Autumn: the Heroine in Moral Frailty
10: Early Winter: the Heroine in Exile
11: Mid-Winter: the Heroine as Presumptive Bride
12: Late Winter: the Heroine as Sleeping Princess
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX