Mirror-images

Looking into her mirror, the heroine of Lehmann's Invitation to the Waltz experiences the division between Las-subject and she-as-object. By contrast, the heroine of H.D.'s Her, reflected in the gaze of her female lover, experiences herself as both subject and objet and this reciprocity is articulated in word-play on the object pronoun of the feminine gender. A number of modern poems by American women embody the sense of being 'other in oneself in images of mirroring. The poetic text is itself the site of images, reflections and transformations, where silence becomes speech, identity can be transposed or affirmed, the invisible made visible. These poems evoke the idea of the mirror as a threshold between the seen and the unseen, a meeting-place between the speaking subject and its shadow selves. Their mirror-images may take the form of looking-glass, pool, portrait or head-bearing shield

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