Metaliterary Katabasis in the Writings of Eavan Boland, Derek Walcott and Gloria Naylor : The Poet and the Underworld

Focusing on the ancient motif of the descent into the underworld (katabasis), this book examines how three 20th-century writers – Eavan Boland, Gloria Naylor and Derek Walcott – articulate their poetics and assert their place within the Western literary canon by means of receptions of this motif from Graeco-Roman literature. This study examines three key texts published between 1985 and 1990, exploring how these writers – an Irish poet, an African-American novelist and a Caribbean poet – employ the allegorical motif of katabasis as a metaliterary instrument. Each text is analysed for its receptions of katabasis and its implications for the literary identities of these three authors.

Amaranth Feuth also situates these texts within the broader context of each author’s oeuvre, providing fresh, in-depth analyses of related texts. Utilising the methodological framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and transgeneric narratology, this study compares the deployment of katabasis across different genres and cultural backgrounds. In this way, it demonstrates how Boland, Naylor and Walcott use the katabasis motif to challenge and redefine their roles within Western literature. This comparative approach reveals how contemporary literature reimagines classical themes to address and expand literary boundaries, while also offering a nuanced exploration of how these authors situate themselves in the history of Western – and world – literature.