The following Master's thesis is dedicated to the poetic work of Renée Vivien (1877-1909) who was in major parts influenced by the ancient Greek archaic poet Sappho. In addition to reviving, translating and using the Sapphic verse in French, Vivien also utilised Sappho's end-of-life as a theme in her poetry (specifically, as tradition states, her deathly leap from Leucadian cliff). This theme proves very influential also in the modern poet's own fascination and experience of death. The thesis initially focuses on the cultural-literary perception of suicide from antiquity to the early 20th century, reposing in great part on the suicidological studies of A. Alvarez, M. Barbagli and G. Chkhartishvili, and then focuses on the more specific issue of representation of women's death in the 19th century in the cases of both male and female artists. Such duality of views proves particularly problematic in contrasting the poststructuralist and feminist views of M. Blanchot, E. Bronfen, H. Cixous and E. Showalter in the context of female representation of the question of marginalization and cultural perception of other forms of the ''madwoman''. Finally, the thesis confronts the cultural background that enabled the reception of Sappho's poetry in the 19th century, as well as how the interpretation of her suicide is reflected in her modern translator, poet, and writer Renée Vivien. By comparing Ovid's poetic portrayal in Heroides to the view of Sappho as understood by Vivien, the thesis concludes through the research of R. Dilts, J. DeJean and T. L. Engelking, as well as S. M. Gilbert and S. Gubar to find the possibility of interpreting such diverse views on the poet's death and the mythos of her suicide through intersections of decadent and symbolist poetics.
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