Another Kind of Descent: The Example of Byron
Another Kind of Descent: The Example of Byron

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to point to one possibility of interpretation of one of the most famous poems by lord Byron, „On This Day I Complete My Thirthy-Sixth Year“. In the theoretical sense, the interpretation mostly relies on some of the assumptions of Teresa de Laurentis, Linda Hutcheon, Julia Kristeva and Albert Gelpi, following the idea of Umberto Eco’s concept of postmodern (according to which “postmodernism is a form of narrativity that takes for granted that everything has already been said before… Postmodern texts quote other texts; the platypus quotes other animals… Borges said that the platypus is an animal made up of the pieces of other animals but since the platypus appeared very early in evolution, there are probably other animals made with pieces of platypus”) that can help us draw a parallel between the individual psyche of the hero present in this poem and mythological patterns that coexist as the Mediterranean heritage. There is a dominant lyrical voice divided into two: the hero and the another, a psychological presentation or a symbol of his own inner life that is especially intriguing when provoked by the mythic reading.

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