Gwen Harwood - Context

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Gwen Harwood - Context by Mind Map: Gwen Harwood - Context

1. Harwood faced gender discrimination as a poet

2. As a young adult, Harwood aspired to become a musician. She became a music teacher

3. Other Themes/Inspiration

3.1. Unexpected perspectives of everyday experiences and relationships

3.2. Youth and age

3.3. Past and present

3.4. Inoocence and knowledge

3.5. Growth

4. Family

4.1. Harwood had a strong musical family background

4.2. Poems inspired were inspired by Harwood's childhood and when she lived in Queensland

4.3. Harwood's grandmother was the one to introduce her to poetry

5. Music

5.1. Harwood went on to become an organist at the all Saints Church of England

5.2. Music played a massive part in the inspiration/context for Harwood's poems

6. Art

6.1. Living in Tasmania, Harwood was able to draw an amazing amount of inspiration for her poems from any beauty the landscape and surrounding environment contained

6.2. Harwood also enjoyed to spend her spare time in art clubs in her community, providing a sense of community and comradery amongst the women

7. Philosophical and religious beliefs/views

7.1. Harwood had strong Christian beliefs

7.2. Spiritual exploration was a predominant part of Harwood's poems

7.3. Harwood was well versed in religion, and had a life-long interest in philosophy.

7.4. Harwood often uses images from the natural world to convey philosophical themes and questions about life and death

7.5. Ludwig Wittgenstein, a specialist in the field of linguistic analysis, was Harwood’s philosophical hero and the inspiration for many of her poems as she felt she could clearly relate to him on a philosophical and personal level

8. Being born right after WW2 and being born into the effects that the war had on the society she was living in

9. A lot of subjects and themes that she addressed in her poems were often seen as inappropriate or not acceptable for women to address or talk about, and using male pseudonyms allowed her to do so.

10. Harwood was frustrated that she had been now confided to a housewife and mother and regarded as nothing more. Harwood explored these themes both satirically and seriously and expressed her frustration towards both personal and societal expectations.

11. The time period in which she lived in

11.1. Being a wife/mother in the 50’s/60’s, and the struggles/burdens that came with that

11.2. Lived in the hippie era

11.3. Women were being marginalised in the society she lived in

11.4. Lived in an era of increased self-awareness

12. Feminism + strong feminist views

12.1. Struggle for women's rights

12.2. Fighting against patriarchal ideals

12.3. Lack of contraception available to women

12.4. Challenging stereotypes

12.5. Acting differently to the societal norm

12.6. Rebellion

12.7. Harwood's poetry wasn’t being published when being submitted by her, using male pseudonyms to prove the gender discrimination that she experiencing

13. Personal life/experiences

13.1. Harwood had 4 children

13.2. Harwood moved from Queensland to Tasmania at a young age

14. Romanticism

14.1. Harwood’s appreciations of romanticist poets such as Keats, Coleridge and Tennyson is evident in her examinations of smaller themes. These include the acknowledgement of the individual, imagination as well as the transience of love and life as well as the view that art can transcend temporal restraints of life, open for re-interpretation and by new generations

14.2. Harwood uses the idea of romanticism to express the idea of individualism and uniqueness that she wanted to bring out in the society

14.3. Gwen Harwood’s poetry is heavily influenced by and based in the nature of romanticism