Dancing with goddesses : archetypes, poetry, and empowerment / Annis Pratt.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 378-401) and index.

Part 1 Medusa. -- 1 The other side of a mirror: the deep background of the Medusa archetype. -- 2 Medusa in twentieth-century British and U.S. poetry. -- 3 Medusa in Canada. -- Part 2 Aphrodite. -- 4 The deep background of the Aphrodite archetype. -- 5 Aphrodite in medieval through nineteenth-century poetry. -- 6 Aphrodite in twentieth-century poetry by men. -- 7 Aphrodite in twentieth-century poetry by women. -- 8 Romancing the stone: love poetry in Canada. -- Part 3 Where the wild things are. 9 The Artemis continuum. -- 10 Archetypal patterns and Native American poetry. -- 11 Bear!

'...explores how poets in England and North America respond to archetypes that celebrate a powerful and complex femininity: Medusa, Aphrodite, Artemis, and bears. Annis Pratt shows how more recent Euro-patriarchal patterns draw poets toward domination of women and nature, while apatriarchal elements from the archetypes' deeper historical background lead poets to transcend self-loathing and gynophobia and instead celebrate the human body as it is embedded within the natural world.'

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