Narcissistic tendencies in the representations of motherhood in Marina Tsvetaeva's poetry and prose (Russia)

The present dissertation asserts that Marina Tsvetaeva has created a narcissistic literary persona that employs the maternal as an important vehicle of her self-realization. Tsvetaeva repeatedly turns to the paradigm of mother-child interdependence in order to seek narcissistic balance for her literary persona. In the course of her narcissistic searching, Marina tends to claim her status as that of the mother, and yet often finds herself in the position of a filial figure.; The theory of self-psychology that was developed by the Austrian-American psychiatrist Heinz Kohut provides the theoretical ground for this dissertation. Kohut's vision of narcissism as a motivational force of creativity and his suggestion that a narcissist constantly engages in the search of selfobjects in order to satisfy his or her need to feel as a cohesive self prove true for the maternal figure that emerges from Tsvetaeva's poetry and prose. The men and women that perform the functions of selfobjects in Tsvetaeva's writings do not succeed in satisfying the needs of her narrating persona. Those selfobjects are unstable, fragmented, and lacking the necessary soothing qualities. Marina the Poet uses her “children” to achieve narcissistic balance, but the ultimate bliss is elusive. It might be achieved only in death, the final triumph of the narcissist.; Chapter I provides the biographical information on Marina Tsvetaeva and the summary of Heinz Kohut's theory of self-psychology. Chapter II deals with the maternal representations in Tsvetaeva's autobiographical prose (“Mother and Music,” “The Flagellant Women,” “The House at Old Pimen's”). Chapter III demonstrates how Tsvetaeva's poetic persona identifies with her own mother in portraying her daughter Alia (“Poems to [my] Daughter). Chapter IV examines the Son figure in Tsvetaeva's poetry and prose (“The Son,” “Wires,” “Poems to the Orphan,” “Attempt at a Room,” “Your Death”). Chapter V is devoted to the analysis of complex narcissistic interactions among the characters of “The Tale of Sonechka,” Tsvetaeva's prose piece about her life in the post revolutionary Moscow.