Shells: Autobiographical Motifs in P. B. Shelley's "Hymn to Mercury" and Walter Benjamin's "Mummerehlen"

Mathelinda Nabugodi (UCL SSEES)

Lyric poetry derives its name from the lyre that the Greek god Hermes fashioned from a tortoise shell. The talk is about the appearance of this allegorical object in the two texts of its title. In both cases, the shell is an important accessory in the presentation of the author's 'lyric I.'