Sexuality at the Crossroads of Modernism, Humanism and Spirituality in the Poetry of Robert Graves

Abstract

The advent of modernism in western literature did not only engender in British poets the questioning of political ideologies and the literary canon, but also, the depiction of complex sexual identities. In this dimension, this paper, therefore, examines the dynamics of sexual representation at the crossroads of modernism, humanism and spirituality in Robert Graves’s poetry. It demonstrates that sexual expressions emanating from modernist and humanist praxis, systematically orientate towards a postmodernist/post humanist sex dilemma. With the aid of post structural/feminist theoretical tools, and from textual analyses of selected poems, the paper sustains the claim that in spite of modernist frustrations and humanist scientific orientation of sexuality, Graves’s feminine subjects are uplifted spiritually in line with pre-modernist values.