The Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath

by Edited by Jo Gill

• ISBN13: 9780521606851
• ISBN10: 0521606853
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-20
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The controversies that surround Sylvia Plath's life and work mean that her poems are more read and studied now than ever before. This Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of Sylvia Plath's poetry, prose, letters and journals and of their place in twentieth-century culture. These newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars represent a spectrum of critical perspectives. They pay particular attention to key debates and to well-known texts such as Ariel and the The Bell Jar, while offering original and thought-provoking readings to new as well as more experienced Plath readers. The Companion also discusses three recent additions to the field: Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters, Plath's complete Journals and the 'Restored' edition of Ariel. With its invaluable guide to further reading and chronology of Plath's life and work, this Companion will help students and scholars understand and enjoy Plath's work and its continuing relevance.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	vii
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xvii
List of abbreviations and textual note	xviii
Chronology of Plath's life and work	xx
Part I Contexts and issues	1	(70)
The problem of biography	3	(18)
Susan R. Van Dyne
Plath, history and politics	21	(15)
Deborah Nelson
Plath and psychoanalysis: uncertain truths	36	(16)
Lynda K. Bundtzen
Plath and contemporary American poetry	52	(11)
Linda Wagner-Martin
Plath and contemporary British poetry	63	(8)
Alice Entwistle
Part II Works	71	(101)
The poetry of Sylvia Plath	73	(17)
Steven Gould Axelrod
The Colossus and Crossing the Water	90	(17)
Jo Gill
Ariel and other poems	107	(17)
Christina Britzolakis
The Bell Jar and other prose	124	(15)
Janet Badia
Sylvia Plath's letters and journals	139	(17)
Tracy Brain
The poetry of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: call and response	156	(16)
Diane Middlebrook
Selected Reading	172	(4)
Index	176