Vertimo studijos eISSN 2029-7033
2023, vol. 16, pp. 67–80 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15388/VertStud.2023.4
Sabrina Solange Ferrero
Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IdIHCS)
Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) and
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
ferrero.sabrina.s@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2721-6944
Abstract. This article focuses on Elvira Sastre’s Spanish translation of milk and honey (2015), a collection of poetry by the Indo-Canadian (Insta)poet, rupi kaur1. Our exploration is based on insights from various critics who have recognized the feminist force of kaur’s English original (Deka 2020). Approaching these verses through a gynocritical lens, we draw upon the perspectives of Tanvir Islam (2020) and the insights provided by Tarigan et al. (2021). Guided by a transnational feminist framework of translation (Castro and Spoturno 2020), our analysis extends to the examination of the ethos (Amossy 2010) associated with the enunciative subject responsible for the Spanish rendition, titled otras maneras de usar la boca (2017). Our investigation uncovers that while the translator’s ethos may be characterized as feminist based on the analysis of the prior ethos, the translated text unveils aspects of discursive modalities that challenge this characterization.
Keywords: rupi kaur, Elvira Sastre, translator’s ethos, feminist translation.
Santrauka. Straipsnyje analizuojamas rupi kaur, indų kilmės Kanados (insta)poetės, eilių rinktinės milk and honey (2015) vertimas į ispanų kalbą, kurį atliko poetė, vertėja Elvira Sastre. Tyrimas grindžiamas įvairių kritikų, matančių kaur eilėse anglų kalba feministinę jėgą (Deka 2020), įžvalgomis. Todėl remdamiesi Mohammad’o Tanvir Islam’o (2020) bei Priskos Tarigan ir kitų autorių (2021) studijomis, jos poeziją tiriame ginokritikos požiūriu. Pritaikę transnacionalinį feministinį požiūrį į vertimą (Castro ir Spoturno 2020), siekiame įvertinti, koks yra už rinkinio ispanišką vertimą pavadinimu otras maneras de usar la boca (2017) atsakingo sakymo subjekto etosas (Amossy 2010). Nors vertėjai priskiriamo ankstesnės veiklos pagrindu susiformavusio etoso (prior ethos) analizė rodo, kad šis etosas vertintinas kaip feministinis, kai kurie vertimo teksto diskursiniai modalumai neatitinka tokios etoso apibrėžties.
Pagrindiniai žodžiai: rupi kaur, Elvira Sastre, vertėjo(s) etosas, feministinis vertimas.
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Copyright © 2023 Sabrina Solange Ferrero. Published by Vilnius University Press
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Questions on the translator’s ethics and their social responsibility when translating have become one of the most important issues in Translation Studies today. Among the most relevant aspects that have spurred out of such considerations are those connected to feminism(s) (Castro and Ergun 2018; Ergun 2021) and to the commitment of translators when transmitting the feminine and dissident subjectivities portrayed in the text (Castro and Spoturno 2020). In this sense, understanding the process of translation in situations where the author’s image is associated to intersectional feminist discourses becomes of great interest.
In this paper, we study the case of the Indo-Canadian (Insta)poet and performer rupi kaur, her first poetry collection milk and honey (2015), and the translation of that collection into Spanish by Elvira Sastre. Taking into account, as we have said, that translating always involves considerations of ethics and social responsibility (Washbourne 2019), we analyse the translation otras maneras de usar la boca (2017) and the translator’s ethos from a transnational feminist perspective in order to characterize its association to the feminist cause.
Drawing upon the work of Ruth Amossy (1999, 2009), we could very briefly define the notion of ethos as the image of self, created in the discourse. In his examinations of rhetoric and discourse, Oswald Ducrot (1984) asserts that ethos is closely tied to the subjectivity within the discourse. This subjectivity is a result of the choices made during the creation of the discourse, encompassing factors like tone, word selection, and argumentation, among others. Amossy (1999, 2009) follows these studies and analyses how the author builds their image in texts. When discussing the author’s ethos, Amossy refers to an imaginary figure that exists at the level of the discourse, not to a person who writes in the real world. In this context, ethos is the self-image projected in the discourse by this imaginary figure presented in the text as responsible for the enunciation, i.e., the locutor (Amossy 2009: 2). In this regard, Amossy highlights (much in the same way as Ducrot does) that the ethos is built not in connection with what ideas are present in the text, but in connection to how those ideas are expressed, i.e., the modalities of the discourse.
While the examination of these discursive modalities (the discursive ethos) mentioned above is pivotal for comprehending the subjectivity projected within the discourse, Amossy (2009) posits that this alone is insufficient. Indeed, drawing from Dominique Maingueneau insights (2002), she emphasizes that to cultivate a thorough notion of an author’s ethos, it is of utmost relevance to consider the pre-existing image that the audience has conceived of the locutor even before they utter a word. This extratextual level of ethos, that Amossy calls prior ethos, can be traced in interviews, paratextual elements, critical reviews and other forms of representations made by the author or others, and it is should be studied closely because it affects the way readers approach the author’s piece.
In 2013, Myriam Suchet proposed an approach to the study of the translator’s ethos centred on the negotiation between the first (original) text and the translation. According to her perspective, considering that the translation is derived from a pre-existing text that already presents the author’s image, it becomes challenging to assert the existence of a distinct translator’s ethos. Furthermore, she argues that the translated text does not project a specific persona. Instead, she introduces the concept of a “differential ethos,” an entity shaped by the aforementioned negotiation process. However, we hold an alternative stance in contrast to Suchet’s ideas. Since we understand that every human act is subjective, and that the translator has an active and visible role when translating, we believe that, actually, it is possible to trace how the discursive entity associated with the image of the translator builds their subjectivity into the translated text, as suggested by Spoturno (2017).
Spoturno draws from the notion of ethos proposed by Amossy (2009) with the purpose of studying the image projected in translated texts. According to Spoturno, the translator’s ethos is recognisable in the discursive traces left on the translated text. Spoturno points out that there is subjectivity associated to the figure of the one who translates, and that such subjectivity is shown, at the level of the discourse, by the “enunciative activity and commitment attributed to the Implied Translator” (2017: 180). In fact, the notion of Implied Translator, originally put forward by Giuliana Schiavi (1996) to refer to the agency responsible for the organization and delivery of the message to the target audience, is key for the understanding of the translator’s ethos. The term, at the same time, connects directly to the notion of Implied Author coined by Seymour Chatman (1978), which Spoturno relates to the self-image projected in the original literary piece, i.e., the author’s discursive ethos. By extension, then, the Implied Translator should be considered the self-image projected in the translated piece, i.e., the translator’s discursive ethos. Finally, the use of the term Implied Translator, which is interchanged along Spoturno’s text with Translator, also serves the purpose of avoiding any possible reference to the translator (no capitalization), who is to be associated with the empirical subject “translating in the real world” (2017: 174).
As Spoturno indicates, the analysis of the translator’s ethos can be carried out by reference to paratextual elements (such as notes, introductions, prologues whose authorship is inscribed to the translator) and by the contrastive analysis of the translation against the original text. It is worth mentioning, here, that the possibility of comparing and contrasting versions in different languages is not available for the average reader and, more often than not, is a possibility only for the scholar. However, we believe the case of rupi kaur’s poetry is special in two senses. In the first place, English is a widely spread language across Spanish speaking countries, which provides the readers the possibility to read the first (English) version of the poems. In the second place, those poems are available at no cost on kaur’s Instagram page, i.e., readers do not need to buy the printed book to access milk and honey’s poems in English. For these reasons, we understand the possibility of contrasting versions and, in doing so, reflecting upon the translated text is available for (at least some of) the Spanish readers.
In accordance with Amossy’s ideas, Spoturno also highlights the importance of considering the translator’s prior ethos, i.e., what people already know about the translator, in order to understand how the translated text is received by readers and critics, and how it is created. Following Spoturno’s advice, in this study, we analyse both aspects of the translator’s ethos.
Keeping in mind, then, that translated texts project a self-image of the figure associated with the one who translates, we intend to understand if the discursive modalities in otras maneras de usar la boca account for a translation framed within a Transnational Feminist Translation Studies perspective (Castro and Spoturno 2020). At the same time, considering that the study of the ethos involves the analysis of the prior ethos, we also seek to confirm whether the extra-discursive images of the author and the translator align with a feminist perspective. Transnational Feminisms constitute a contra-hegemonic movement that aims at highlighting differences and focusing on the notion of intersectionality, a paradigm that sheds light on the multiple factors that interact with gender oppression. Based on these ideas, Castro and Spoturno see the practice of transnational feminist translation as a means of political mediation that seeks to undermine hierarchies and promote social justice. Following what Olga Castro and Emek Ergun (2018) had stated, the scholars believe that feminist translation is a tool of outmost importance that should not be limited to interventions within individual texts. In fact, the greatest power of feminist translation, they say, is the possibility of spreading non-hegemonic feminist ideas and promoting the circulation of knowledge from North to South, and from East to West (Castro and Ergun 2018; Castro and Spoturno 2020). The ethics of translation from a feminist perspective, then, must necessarily be seen as mediation among differences (Ergun 2021), and must centre on an awareness of intersectionality.
rupi kaur was born in 1992 in Punjab, India, and moved with her parents to Toronto, Canada, at the age of 4. When she was 10 years old, the family moved to Brampton to live in a community of Indian immigrants. As an Instapoet, i.e., a writer whose work is primarily posted on Instagram (Morgan Rue 2019) and who makes her work public through that social medium before publishing it on paper (Oliveira and Osaki Fazano 2020), kaur entered the realm of publishing thanks to her popularity on social media. However, she is not just another Instapoet: She is widely regarded as the most significant one (Cia 2017; Faust 2017; Yandava 2018), and is often referred to as “the queen” (Carlin 2017; Leverage Edu 2021). With over 4.5 million followers on Instagram, her three books of poetry have become New York Times bestsellers. She has embarked on tours across Europe and USA, captivating audiences with her spoken word poetry shows. Recently, she concluded her latest worldwide tour, which included debut performances in Mexico, Brazil, and Singapore. rupi kaur is celebrated globally not only as a poet but also as an artist, performer, and feminist activist (Mazin 2016; Yandava 2018; Leverage Edu 2021; Saraswati 2021, among others).2 Her work and persona, associated with the name “rupi kaur,” have evolved through the realms of multimodality and intermediality, a self-translation process (Ferrero 2022) that encompasses transitions from Instagram (Instapoetry) to printed pages, live performances on stage, and even digital platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Prime (kaur n/d).
Her Indian roots together with the importance of Sikhism in her life are reflected in her work and her social media alike. In fact, the very name kaur, which she has purposefully chosen for herself, is the name all single Sikh women share. It is also a name that, following Sikh beliefs, frees these women from the caste system behind their original last names. As kaur herself has noted, using this shared name allows her to create a sense of belonging and helps her sisters believe in themselves:
if you notice the spines of my books- you’ll see my full name isn’t on there. when i designed the covers i chose to only put the name ‘kaur’ on the spine and purposely left ‘rupi’ out. i did this so when other little kaur’s [SIC] walked into western bookstores they could see their names on the shelves- something i never got to see growing up. my hope was that if they saw a book with their name on it they would be inspired to dream and create (kaur [@rupikaur_] August 7, 2018).
As we can see here, the discursive entity responsible for the enunciation presents herself as a feminist, driven by the desire for her fellow women to have improved opportunities, representation, and empowerment. In this Instagram post, we can also notice that kaur decides to adopt traits such as the lack of capitalization and (almost) lack of punctuation marks, which are characteristic of her first language, Punjabi, and use them in her texts in English. This is yet another example of how the image associated with the name rupi kaur is projected to the world. rupi kaur is not only presented as a feminist, but as a feminist who understands that not all women receive the same treatment, and as a woman who has suffered gender oppression intersected with other forms of oppression, be it for her religion, ethnicity, race, origin, culture, work, or other.
Readings of milk and honey (2015) also recognise that the persona associated with the name rupi kaur can be considered a feminist activist. In the sphere of gynocriticism, Priska Tarigan, Martha Pardede and Siamir Marulafau describe kaur’s poems as belonging to the female phase in women literature3 (2021), “a phase where women are using writing both as a tool to fight for women’s justice and also as a forum for telling women the way they are” (69). Following this idea, they analyse 28 poems where the female body is revisited and, in some cases, used by women as a means of “embracing their rights” (70). The results of this study show that the poems serve as a denouncement of the objectification of women and the transformation of the female body into a territory for men to conquer. However, the poems also build a resistance zone in the space of the feminine body, which works against oppression and allows for the re-appropriation and strengthening of the body, thus breaking away from cultural and social stereotypes (Tarigan et al. 2021).
According to Mohammad Tanvir Islam (2020) and his study of Elaine Showalter’s ideas (1979), from a gynocritic perspective, the analysis of a literary text can be carried out in two ways. First, by highlighting the topics inherently female in nature, and second, by analysing the use of language to find an experimentation and rebellion against a style considered patriarchal (Tanvir Islam 2020). In connection to the first approach, studies have referred to the great number of feminist topics that appear in the poems as a specific characteristic of kaur’s work (Tanvir Islam 2020). Among those topics, we can point out how the notion of romantic love is revised (Deka 2020); a notion that is presented as given at the beginning of the collection and is finally rejected at the end. As regards the lack of capitalized forms and the almost complete absence of punctuation marks in kaur’s writings, Tanvir Islam (2020) believes this is the poet’s attempt to escape the sexism Dale Spender (1981) associates with language. Following Hélène Cixous (1976), in kaur’s poems the scholar recognises a deviation from the norms and rules of the patriarchal language as a means to destabilising it and creating a gynotext.
milk and honey is divided into four sections that represent four different moments in “the journey of surviving through poetry” (kaur 2015: back cover). For the purpose of this paper, we have selected the final section, “the healing” (kaur 2015: 145–204), since we believe it to be the chapter of greatest feminist expression, where the persona in the poems finds herself again and becomes independent and strong; the chapter where she manages to heal.
Translator, (Insta)poet, writer and performer Elvira Sastre was born in Spain in 1992. She published her first book, the poetry collection 43 maneras de soltarse el pelo, in 2012. This first book consists of what James Morgan Rue (2019) calls conventional poetry, but her other collections, such as Baluarte (2014) or Aquella orilla nuestra (2018), include instances that show elements belonging to what Ulises Oliveira and Bruna Osaki Fazano (2020) describe as Instapoetry, i.e., “a textual configuration that is concise, short, with few textual elements” (1183). Even if she tends to post her poems (or verses of her poems) on Instagram, that process of intermedial self-translation goes from the published book to social media, almost never happening the other way around. For her first novel, Días sin ti (2019), Sastre was awarded the prestigious Premio Biblioteca Breve in Spain. Her work, especially her poetry, has been widely recognised and studied as feminist (Cánovas 2018; González-Llanos 2018; Logroño Carrascosa 2019; Mongue Escobar et al. 2019). She also performs worldwide, doing spoken word poetry and readings from her books, most times accompanied by a guitar player (Sastre n/d). As a translator, she has worked in both Spanish and English, but her most recognised contribution has been translating kaur’s poetry collections into Spanish: otras maneras de usar la boca (2017) (milk and honey), el sol y sus flores (2018) (the sun and her flowers), and todo lo que necesito existe ya en mí (2021) (homebody).
In this article, we analyse the first collection of kaur’s trilogy, which is called in Spanish otras maneras de usar la boca (2017). The decision to employ this particular work as our corpus is largely based on the fact that, as demonstrated in the preceding section, it has undergone extensive feminist analysis. In fact, the book itself is presented as a feminist journey: “milk and honey is a / collection of poetry about / love / loss / trauma / abuse / healing / and femininity” (kaur 2015: 208). We propose, here, to go over a few examples that we believe are significant in Sastre’s translation into Spanish in order to unveil the stance taken by the discursive entity responsible for the enunciation in the translation, and see whether the translator’s ethos can be described as feminist. Again, it is clear that the possibility to compare and contrast the English and Spanish versions of the poems is not available for all readers. However, as we have stated before, the fact that kaur shares her poems on Instagram (at no cost), and the spread of English as a lingua franca are two relevant situations that have made access to milk and honey’s pieces a reality for Spanish readers. While not all of them are willing or interested in revising Sastre’s versions in light of kaur’s poems, we cannot overlook the fact that many of them, including most literary agents, critics, and scholars—significant figures in the publishing field—do engage in this process. Therefore, an analysis of the discursive ethos projected in the translation becomes crucial.
First, we would like to discuss the lexical choice la cura for the translation of the title of the final section, the healing, a word that recurs, as evident in the following poem:
do not look for healing / at the feet of those / who broke you (kaur 2015: 155).
no busques la cura / en los pies de aquellos / que te rompieron (kaur 2017: 159).4
Here, in the translation, we find a noun that derives from a verb that, without a pronominal structure, is transitive. In the context of this poem, this transitivity signals to the presence of an external agent in charge of repairing the physical and emotional damage suffered. In English, however, by means of the term heal (which is widely used as an intransitive verb), the poem allows for (we could even say that it points at) an internal healing process on the part of the feminine subject who rediscovers herself and rebuilds herself, in an entirely independent way, by means of self-love. Due to the lexical choice we mentioned above, these readings do not seem so readily possible in the translation into Spanish.
A similar situation occurs in the translation of the term found and lost in the following case:
you deserve to be / completely found / in your surroundings / not lost within them (kaur 2015: 167).
mereces que te / encuentren por completo / en tus alrededores / no perderte en ellos (kaur 2017: 169).
The Spanish rendition attributes the act of finding to a third party who is presented as the performer of the action, while the feminine subject in the poem passively waits to be found. The English version does not necessarily exclude the presence of an external agent but, still, allows for the possibility of a self-discovery journey and, in doing so, brings about a new understanding of the surroundings mentioned in the poem—those surroundings should promote the complete freedom to be oneself, not serve as an obstacle. If we analyse the term lost in this context, then, we can appreciate how the losing implies more than the simple act of getting lost, but involves losing oneself, or, even, one’s sense of self. The Spanish version does not necessarily lead to an interpretation of this sort.
We present now another interesting example we consider relevant to explore, especially because of the importance of the feminine body in this section of the poetry collection:
the next time he / points out the / hair on your legs is / growing back remind / that boy your body / is not his home / he is a guest / warn him to / never outstep / his welcome / again (kaur 2015: 165).
la próxima vez / que te diga / que te está creciendo / el pelo de las piernas recuérdale / a ese chico que tu cuerpo / no es su casa / es un invitado / avísale que / nunca vuelva a ir más allá / de su bienvenida (kaur 2017: 169).
It is clear here that the poem denounces the way men tend to appropriate the bodies of women, granting themselves inappropriate instances of criticism and insult. In this sense, revising the translation of warn him into avísale seems appropriate, since it is a choice that weakens the explicit reprimand present in the English text. Likewise, a translation that stays so close to the text in English, such as the one we see in the two final lines, does not reflect, we believe, the idea of transgression embedded in the phrase outstep his welcome. Even if we see how language is estranged in the translation (an aspect that could be considered a transgression in itself and, thus, aimed at recreating the idea present in the English text), we believe this is not done successfully due to how difficult it is to make sense of the expression in Spanish.
The following example refers as well to the body of women, but this time in a more metaphoric way, to highlight women’s (creative) desire:
my heartbeat quickens at / the thought of birthing poems / which is why I will never stop / opening myself up to conceive them / the lovemaking / to the words / is so erotic / i am either in love / or in lust with / the writing / or both (kaur 2015: 200).
mi corazón se acelera / al pensar en el nacimiento de los poemas / por eso nunca dejaré / de abrirme para concebirlos / hacer el amor / con las palabras / es tan erótico / estoy enamorada / o adicta / a la escritura / o ambas cosas (kaur 2017: 204).
While the text in English clearly expresses the importance of giving women an active role when it comes to owning their desire, the Spanish version seems to lose some of that feminist empowering. For instance, when the act of writing poems is compared with an erotic encounter, in the English text we find phrases such as the lovemaking to the words or birthing poems, metaphors that account for a woman who takes control of her desire and acts upon it, and who is directly responsible for the realisation of her creativity. The Spanish version, however, presents this woman in a relative passive role if we consider, for instance, the translation of the preposition to into con (with) in hacer el amor con las palabras, or the choice of replacing a verb for a noun in the translation of birthing into nacimiento (the birth).
Another interesting point to discuss when comparing the English version to the translation into Spanish is how pain is portrayed in each case. Let us take the following example:
stay strong through your pain / grow flowers from it / you have helped me / grow flowers out of mine so / bloom beautifully / dangerously / loudly / bloom softly / however you need / just bloom // - to the reader (kaur 2015: 158).
resiste con fuerza tu dolor / planta flores en él / me has ayudado / a que crezcan flores en mí así que / florece con belleza / con peligro / con fuerza / florece con suavidad / aunque lo que necesites / sea solo florecer // - a quien me lee (kaur 2017: 189).
The strength of the preposition from in “grow flowers from it” is deluded when replaced by en (on) in the Spanish version, where the feminine subject manages to plant flowers (to grow, see beauty) even in such inhospitable conditions. When pain is a source of growth in the English version, serving as fertile ground for the blooming of flowers, the Spanish version portrays growth as occurring despite pain rather than because of it. In this sense, the Spanish text lacks the echo of the positive perspective on pain found in the English text, a contrast further reinforced in the two final lines. While in the English text the idea of blooming (growing, seeing beauty, becoming beauty) is emphasized by the phrase “however you need / just bloom,” the same idea is diminished in Spanish by the choice of the cohesive device aunque (even if) in a phrase that could be translated as “even if all you need is to bloom.”
As a way to close this analysis, there is a final example that also refers to pain and we believe is worth taking into consideration:
the world / gives you / so much pain / and there you are / making gold out of it // – there is nothing purer than that (kaur 2015: 185).
el mundo / te hace / tanto daño / y aquí estás / extrayendo oro de él // – no hay nada más puro que eso (kaur 2017: 189).
Again, in this case, the English version depicts a more active role for women, as the creators of gold (making gold) instead of the ones who extract it, which is the choice for the Spanish translation in extrayendo oro. This example is also relevant if we consider how feminisms have, for years, aligned themselves with environmental causes and denounced extractive practices (Gaard 1993, 2017; Mies and Shiva [1993] 2014; Warren 1997, among many others).
If we consider that milk and honey has been translated into more than 40 languages (Andrews McMeel Publishing n/d), we can assert that one of the key aims of transnational feminist translation studies has been accomplished: feminist discourses were moved from the periphery to the centre. Despite having lived in Canada since a very early age, kaur’s cultural heritage remains a constant presence in her poems. Moreover, one of the most significant aspects of her feminist expression involves the re-evaluation of the roles Indian women play and the positions they hold in society. In this regard, we are witnessing a remarkably valuable and unique case where a young female poet of Indian origin has not only gained substantial visibility within English-speaking communities but has also achieved global recognition through translation.
Given our analysis of the prior ethos of the persona associated with the name Elvira Sastre, the decision to assign the translation of kaur’s work to Sastre appears to be the right choice. Elvira Sastre is a widely acclaimed poet, a recognised feminist activist, and an accomplished award-winning writer. The ethos of the author is necessarily attached to the image of the translator and adds credibility and value to the translator’s ethos (Spoturno 2017), precisely as observed in the instance of the image associated with the name Elvira Sastre. We can aptly characterize the ethos of this translator as competent, empathic, accomplished, and skilful.
Having said that, however, we cannot disregard the fact that translation choices in the Spanish text do not necessarily align with a feminist translation perspective. As we have seen in the analysed examples, the lexical choices underpinning the strength of the feminist message in the English collection are compromised, revealing the translator’s ethos that could be described as clumsy, failing to recognize the subtleties of the text. In that sense, we hold the belief that the Spanish translation, in numerous instances, not only omits subtle shades of meaning found in the English text, but also opens the door to reinforcing harmful stereotypes associated with women and their passive role in relation to their desires, control over their lives, and ownership of their bodies.
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1 As we will see in a later section of this text, the lack of capitalization, shown here and maintained throughout this article, is a trait characteristic of kaur’s work. Not only does it replicate uses of English typical of social media, but, most importantly, it also reflects specific uses of her first language, Punjabi.
2 Even if kaur’s position as a feminist continues to be respected and recognised, some scholars have lately started to see her work and her image in a new light by understanding that social media plays an important role in reinforcing neoliberal values. That is the case of L. Ayu Saraswati (2021), who considers that kaur’s feminist stance “is co-opted, limited, and shaped by the neoliberal logic of social media” (67). (This is a very interesting point we will cover in future studies.)
3 The authors borrow the term from gynocritic Elaine Showalter’s description of what she names the feminist poetic (1979).
4 The underlining markings, here and in the examples below, are ours. The uses of italics are present in the printed poems and do not constitute any form of marking on our part.