Gender-Semantic Functions of Poetic Metaphor in Sylvia Plath and Halima Xudoyberdiyeva: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the gender-semantic functions of poetic metaphor in the works of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Halima Xudoyberdiyeva (1947-2018) through a comparative typological lens. Poetic metaphor in women’s confessional and lyric poetry operates not merely as a rhetorical device but as a primary vehicle for encoding female subjectivity under conditions of social constraint. Drawing on cognitive metaphor theory as developed by Lakoff and Johnson, and feminist literary theory as articulated by Irigaray and Beauvoir, the article identifies and analyzes three convergent metaphorical systems in both poets' work: the female body as historical archive, animal imagery as a vehicle for encoded inner resistance, and natural metaphors of time and irreversible loss. The comparative analysis demonstrates that Plath and Xudoyberdiyeva independently deploy structurally homologous metaphorical strategies to address the same gender-semantic problem, despite working in culturally unrelated literary traditions and without any demonstrable mutual influence. These findings suggest that cross-cultural comparison of poetic metaphor is a productive methodological tool for understanding the structural conditions of female poetic voice.