Tracing the Translucent Body: A Study of Tears as Mythopoesis in Myth, Literature, and Creative Practice

Abstract

This study explores tears as a paradigm of mythopoetic storytelling, especially emphasizing tears’ reflexive and generative properties. Ritual lament and religious devotion root the study in communal traditions and individual practices of weeping. By analyzing the performative expressions of ancient texts (Libation Bearers, Trojan Women, Tristia, Lamentations) along with the mystical imaginings of devotional writers (Margery Kempe, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila), this study underscores the embodied and empathetic relationship between practices of weeping and creative practice itself. The themes of the body as a containing vessel for tears as well as tears as a transformative force upon the body are examined within mythic figures and folktales of comparative literature. The study concludes with a reflection upon Arts Based Research (ABR) as a method for synthesizing scholarly and creative approaches to research. This dissertation contends that tears need to be reimagined and acknowledged for their mythopoetic influence within both our creative and interpretive approaches to art and artmaking so that we can better cultivate their transformative properties.