Summary
Robert Graves: The White Goddess
A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth The White Goddess - A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth was originally published in 1948 and contains Graves's controversial and unorthodox theory of mythology, both intuitive and based on research into pre-classical religions; the work caused numerous controversies, especially considering its basic feminist premise. Namely, according to the author, the White Goddess - the female principle - contains the forces of love, destruction and poetic imagination. She ruled during the period of matriarchy before being replaced by patriarchal gods, representatives of cold reason and logic. Graves argues that this was the tipping point at which academic poetry began to dominate. He also claims that the influence of the White Goddess was felt again in the period of Romanticism, and that the best poets still worship her today.
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