Towards Female Dreamland: Adrienne Rich's Lifelong Literary Renewal

American women's works has "a shape, a history, a process of evolution that can be traced over time" (Showalter, "American Gynocriticm" 112). Adrienne Rich, being one of the most outstanding American feminist literary figures whose poetry is an incarnation of human growth and change, is a good testimony to this claim of Showalter's. Rich starts her poetic journey as a conservative feminine poet but gradually turns against the patriarchal origins of her poetry and moves towards a matriarchal dreamland. Though there is a bulk of critical works written on Rich's poetry and prose as a feminist writer's works, none has been devoted to a thorough analysis of the development of Rich's feminist poetics from her very beginning steps as a female writer with regard to her gradual movement from conservatism to radicalism in reflecting the voices of the oppressed. Filling the already mentioned gap in the criticism of Rich's works, the present work will focus on these aspects of Rich's poeticsand will analyze them in terms of specific feminist theories and terminologies. The analysis would be especially useful to those interested in the field of American literature,feminism and women studies.