I can't help much on the psychoanalytic stuff, but I'd say Chris you
might find a lot of interest in Romantic writing about poetry, which
is often couched in these terms - the male genius "conceiving" the
poem, "gestating" it behind his magnificent forehead, "giving birth",
etc etc, often with some female amneusis acting as a kind of seminal
catalyst. There's a good book, "Gender and Genius: Towards a Feminist
Aesthetics" by Barbara Kerr that references a lot of those things, and
which looks at the history of the idea of genius, tracing it back to
Roman ideas of gens (a male virtue). Also, the idea of a pregnant or
lactating Christ turns up in a lot of mediaeval and earlier mystic
writing, Boethius I think.
All best
Alison
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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