The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath

by Jo Gill

• ISBN13: 9780521686952
• ISBN10: 0521686954
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Sylvia Plath is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century Anglo-American literature and culture. Her work has constantly remained in print in the UK and US (and in numerous translated editions) since the appearance of her first collection in 1960. Plath's own writing has been supplemented over the decades by a wealth of critical and biographical material. The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath provides an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the poetry, prose and autobiographical writings of Sylvia Plath. It offers a critical overview of key readings, debates and issues from almost fifty years of Plath scholarship, draws attention to the historical, literary, national and gender contexts which frame her writing and presents informed and attentive readings of her own work. This accessibly written book will be of great use to students beginning their explorations of this important writer.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Abbreviations and textual note	p. xii
Life	p. 1
Family	p. 1
Marriage	p. 7
England	p. 10
Contexts	p. 14
Literary contexts	p. 15
'Poetess of America'	p. 17
Confessional poetry	p. 19
Historical and ideological contexts	p. 21
World War II	p. 22
Postwar cultures	p. 24
Domesticity and the suburbs	p. 26
England	p. 28
Early poetry	p. 29
Juvenilia and other early poems	p. 30
English influences	p. 33
The Colossus	p. 35
Creativity and self-creation	p. 40
Crossing the Water	p. 43
Transformation and change	p. 44
Displacement	p. 49
Ariel and later poetry	p. 51
Ariel	p. 53
Echoes	p. 53
The bee sequence, 'Lady Lazarus' and 'Daddy'	p. 58
Ariel: The Restored Edition	p. 64
Winter Trees and other late poems	p. 66
Three Women	p. 69
The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams	p. 73
The Bell Jar	p. 73
Narrative voice	p. 78
The double	p. 79
Subjectivity	p. 83
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams	p. 84
Value	p. 85
English stories	p. 90
America	p. 91
Letters Home and Journals	p. 93
Letters Home	p. 93
Rendering account	p. 97
Leaving home	p. 100
The Journals of Sylvia Plath	p. 101
The Journals of Sylvia Plath (1982): the abridged edition	p. 101
Masks	p. 104
The Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000): the unabridged edition	p. 105
Reception	p. 111
Biography	p. 111
Confessional	p. 115
Mythology	p. 117
Feminist readings	p. 119
Psychoanalytical approaches	p. 123
History and politics	p. 125
New directions	p. 128
Notes	p. 129
Further reading	p. 140
Index	p. 146
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