Abstract:
This article considers the way in which Björk has adapted poems by E. E. Cummings in several of her songs, and, especially, her appropriation of some of his typical motives in Sun In My Mouth and the rest of the songs in Vespertine. While Cummings celebrates the solar hero unambiguously, Björk adopts a feminine point of view that hesitates between the role models of Lilith, the woman who finds her freedom outside society, and Eve, the woman whose submissiveness is regarded as socially productive. As a result, Vespertine generates a discourse which has a great value in aesthetic terms, but which is ideologically limited because of the motives it is based upon.
Key words:
Björk; E. E. Cummings; Gender; Feminity; Motherhood