Unleashing Satire: Deconstructing the Stereotypical Image of Women in Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

This paper explores the treatment of satire in Carol Ann Duffy's The World's Wife (1999) and its significance within feminist literature. Given Duffy's substantial influence on contemporary and British poetry, understanding satire's nuanced role in her works is crucial. However, existing scholarship overlooks this aspect, creating a notable gap in research. Consequently, this study aims to fill this void by examining how Duffy employs satire to subvert traditional gender roles and societal norms. Drawing from structuralists' binary oppositions and feminist revisionism by post-structural French theorists, the research adopts a qualitative-analytic approach to analyze selected poems, uncovering the complexities of female experiences and empowering agency. The selected poems, including Mrs Aesop, Mrs Midas, Mrs Sisyphus, Mrs Eurydice, Mrs Icarus, Mrs Darwin, and Mrs Faust, are analyzed to restructure female convictions and identity. The findings highlight satire's transformative potential in critiquing societal constructs and amplifying marginalized voices, contributing to a deeper understanding of feminist literature and emphasizing satire's role as a tool for social critique and empowerment within the field.