Politics of Androgynous Matrix: A Comparative Study of Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich.

The study attempts to locate the politics of androgynous matrix in some of the poems written by twentieth-century American feminist poets Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich. It applies relational content analysis, Judith Butler’s theory of gender, and Adrienne Rich’s concept of compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence as its method and theoretical tool. Their poems deconstruct the politicized heterosexual dynamics which has been forcibly and subliminally imposed on women and construct androgynous identity/sexuality. The poets’ feminist/queer rage as a legitimate emotion questions the complex dynamics of gender as well as powerfully threatens monologic/masculinist gender asymmetry. The poets effectively deconstruct the cultural inscription of masculinity and femininity and also demonstrate that female sex, neither inferior nor the Other, must not be restricted to feminine/submissive, sensitive/nurturant gender-linked behavior. They refuse to adhere to hegemonic masculinity by which male sex exercises social dominance over female sex. They reverse the existing gender roles and postulate selfregulatory mechanisms of assuming androgynous identities to break the established gender binaries and violate gender-appropriate behavior, thereby threatening heterosexual hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]