Representing Sylvia Plath

An exploration of the elusive nature of representation in Plath's poetry and the various versions of her that readers encounter.

Sally Bayley (Edited by), Tracy Brain (Edited by)

9781107006751, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 August 2011

264 pages, 22 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.52 kg

Interest in Sylvia Plath continues to grow, as does the mythic status of her relationship with Ted Hughes, but Plath is a poet of enduring power in her own right. This book explores the many layers of her often unreliable and complex representations and the difficult relationship between the reader and her texts. The volume evaluates the historical, familial and cultural sources which Plath drew upon for material: from family photographs, letters and personal history to contemporary literary and cinematic holocaust texts. It examines Plath's creative processes: what she does with materials ranging from Romantic paintings to women's magazine fiction, how she transforms these in multiple drafts and the tools she uses to do this, including her use of colour. Finally the book investigates specific instances when Plath herself becomes the subject matter for other artists, writers, film makers and biographers.

Introduction: 'Purdah' and the enigma of representation Sally Bayley and Tracy Brain
Part I. Contexts: 1. 'Mailed into space': on Sylvia Plath's letters Jonathan Ellis
2. 'The photographic chamber of the eye': Plath photography, and the post-confessional muse Anita Helle
3. 'O the tangles of that old bed': fantasies of incest and the 'Daddy' narrative in Ariel Lynda K. Bundtzen
4. Plath and torture: cultural contexts for Plath's imagery of the Holocaust Steven Gould Axelrod
Part II. Poetics and Composition: 5. 'The trees of the mind are black, the light is blue': sublime encounters in Sylvia Plath's tree poems Sally Bayley
6. Coming to terms with colour: Plath's visual aesthetic Laure de Nervaux-Gavoty
7. Madonna (of the refrigerator): mapping Sylvia Plath's double in 'The Babysitters' drafts Kathleen Connors
8. 'Procrustean identity': Sylvia Plath's women's magazine fiction Luke Ferretter
Part III. Representation: 9. Confession, contrition, and concealment: evoking Plath in Ted Hughes's 'Howls and Whispers' Lynda K. Bundtzen
10. Fictionalising Sylvia Plath Tracy Brain
11. Primary representations: three artists respond to Sylvia Plath
Adolescent Plath - 'the girl who would be God' Suzie Hanna
Bodily imprints: a choreographic response to Sylvia Plath's Poppy Poems Kate Flatt (with Sally Bayley)
Stella Vine's peanut crunching Plath Sally Bayley
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary companions, book reviews & guides [DSRC], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]