Sylvia Plath in Context

Describes how interwar modernism responded to the global crisis in the liberal world order after 1919.

Tracy Brain (Edited by)

9781108470131, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

446 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.78 kg

'A varied and well-edited selection that indicates the range of current Plath studies.' Ann Kennedy Smith, TLS

Sylvia Plath in Context brings together an exciting combination of established and emerging thinkers from a range of disciplines. The book reveals Plath's responses to the writers she reads, her interventions in the literary techniques and forms she encounters, and the wide range of cultural, personal, artistic, political, historical and geographical influences that shaped her work. Many of these essays confront the specific challenges for reading Sylvia Plath today. Others evaluate her legacy to the writers who followed her. Reaching well beyond any simple equation in which biographical cause results in literary effect, all of them argue for a body of work that emerges from Plath's deep involvement in the world she inhabits. Situating Plath's writing within a wide frame of references that reach beyond any single notion of self, this book will be a vital resource for students, scholars, instructors and researchers of Sylvia Plath.

Part I. Literary Contexts: 1. Plath and the American poetry scene Jonathan Ellis
2. The dominant trends in British poetry of the 1950s and early 1960s Eleanor Spencer
3. Plath and the classics Holly Ranger
4. Plath and the radio drama Andrew Walker
5. 'Sincerely yours': Plath and The New Yorker Peter K. Steinberg
Part II. Literary Technique and Influence: 6. Plath in the context of Stevie Smith Noreen Masud
7. Plath's whimsy Will May
8. Sylvia Plath and you Tracy Brain
9. Plath and the lyric Lucy Tunstall
10. Plath and the pastoral Iain Twiddy
Part III. Cultural Contexts: 11. Plath and food Gerard Woodward
12. Plath and fashion Rebecca C. Tuite
13. Experimental bravery: Plath's poetry and auteur cinema Lynda Bundtzen
14. Plath and television Nicola Presley
15. Plath and art Jane Hedley
Part IV. Sexual and Gender Contexts: 16. 'Minor scandal': queer writing contexts for The Bell Jar Beatrice Hitchman
17. 'Woman-haters were like gods': The Bell Jar and violence against women in 1950s America Kate Harding
18. Sylvia Plath and the culture of hygiene Laura Perry
Part V. Political and Religious Contexts: 19. The Bell Jar, the Rosenbergs and the problem of the enemy within Robin Peel
20. Religious contexts for Sylvia Plath's work Gail Crowther
21. Plath and nature Richard Kerridge
22. Plath and war Cornelia Pearsall
Part VI. Biographical Contexts: 23. Sylvia Plath's journals Sally Bayley
24. Plath's teaching and the shaping of her work Amanda Golden
25. Electroshock therapy and Plath's convulsive poetics Anita Helle
26. Plath's scrapbooks Peter K. Steinberg
27. Beyond letters home: Plath's unabridged correspondence Karen V. Kukil
Part VII. Plath and Place: 28. 'A certain minor light': Sylvia Plath in Brontë country Sarah Corbett
29. Plath in London Elaine Feinstein
30. Plath in Devon: growing words out of isolation Maeve O'Brien
Part VIII. The Creative Afterlife: 31. An alternative afterlife: Plath's experimental poetics Gareth Farmer
32. British and American editions of Ariel and The Bell Jar Elena Rebollo-Cortés
33. After Plath: the legacy of influence Fiona Sampson
34. P(l)athography: Sylvia Plath and her biographers Heather Clark.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literature: history & criticism [DS]