Pomegranate Flesh - A Creative Manuscript and Commentary

Kayt Davies

This thesis is presented in two parts. The first is the Pomegranate Flesh manuscript. It was written as a short novel (of approximately 40,000 words) and it is currently being considered by a number of publishing houses. The novel is a modem retelling of the ancient Greek Demeter-Persephone and Narcissus-Echo-Ameinias myth cycles. Set in an ambiguous mythic landscape the story follows the characters through processes relating to adolescent maturation, empty nest syndrome and the search for meaning. The second part is a commentary that offers a description of the process of writing the manuscript. It begins with an outline of the historic sources of the myth and an introduction to the Jungian perspective on mythology, which posits that myths can serve to bring dangerous and/or uncomfortable psychological states into balance. From there it looks at other commentaries on the psychological relevance of the Demeter/Persephone story and at details within the Pomegranate Flesh manuscript that were written with conscious awareness of their social and cultural implications. The commentary concludes stating that the process of writing Pomegranate Flesh conforms with Bronfenbrenner's (1995) Systems Model of Human Behaviour, in that it was organic and involved a range of simultaneous influences. The manuscript was written in the hope that its readers will find it enjoyable and psychologically useful and it is hoped that the commentary will contribute to better understanding of the creative writing process with regard to the retelling of old stories.

Pomegranate Flesh - A Creative Manuscript and Commentary

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