The Appropriation Of The Genre Of Nuptial Poetry By Katharina Lescailje (1649–1711)

Abstract

Love is a conqueror and a violator.When a bride is captured by Love, pity arises instead of jealousy or admiration.These are not themes one expects to encounter in a poem written to commemorate the cheerful occasion of marriage.Yet in some of the nuptial poems by the Dutch poet Katharina Lescailje (1649-1711) these are dominant themes.Marriage in her poems is often represented as a prison, which brings an end to one's freedom.Recent research has regarded this as remarkable.On the basis of a semiotic reading of poems Lescailje wrote for female friends, Lia van Gemert concluded that we should consider the possibility that Lescailje harboured lesbian feelings for them. 1 Van Gemert bases her argument partly on a nuptial poem.The negative tone Lescailje's poem takes to marriage could according to her reveal feelings of love for the bride and jealousy towards the bridegroom. 2 Ellen Grabowsky has offered resistance to this interpretation on the basis of archival research revealing biographical evidence that problematises Van Gemert's interpretations. 3 Grabowsky also points to similarities between this poem and some other nuptial poems by Lescailje.She contends that the negativity towards marriage in the poems for some women bears 1 Gemert L. van, "Hiding Behind Words?Lesbianism in 17th-century Dutch Poetry", Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present 2, 1 (1995) 11-44; and "De vrouwenzucht van Katharina Lescailje", in

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