Sylvia Plath's Poetry

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8264-8932-6
Verlag: Continuum International Publishing Group

Buch, Englisch, 176 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Reader's Guides

Reader's Guide to Sylvia Plath's work, its composition and its relationship to her life.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) is one of the most popular poets with students and remains one of the most widely studied.
- Despite her popularity, due to copyright restrictions to date, this will be the first guide to offer students close textual guidance.
- Student-friendly features include discussion points, questions, suggestions for further study and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

Reader's Guides provide a comprehensive starting point for any advanced student, giving an overview of the context, criticism and influence of key works. Each guide also offers students fresh critical insights and provides a practical introduction to close reading and to analysing literary language and form. They provide up-to-date, authoritative but accessible guides to the most commonly studied classic texts.

Sylvia Plath is one of the best known and most widely studied modern poets. This is an ideal guide for students wanting to know more about her work, its composition and its relationship to Plath's life. It provides a clear introduction to Plath's life, her relationship with Ted Hughes and his influence on her poetry and its reception and close guidance on reading her poetry focusing particularly on the most commonly studied groups of poems. An overview of Plath's critical reception from contemporary reviews to the Hughes-Plath controversies includes that surrounding his publication of The Birthday Letters, and the section of adaptation and influence discusses the films based around The Bell Jar and Plath's life. Finally, it offers a clear annotated guide to primary and secondary reading.

Zielgruppe

Introductory Undergraduate, Upper Level Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wagner-Martin, Linda

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Contexts Plath's life and interests; family, social and political context including position of women. Culture clash on marrying Ted Hughes, difference in their aesthetic taste.
2. Language, Style and Form Overview of Plath's poetic aims within the context of modern poetry
3. Reading Plath's poetry Close readings of poems in themed clusters: best-known poems from Ariel, 'Daddy', 'Lady Lazarus', 'The Applicant', 'Ariel' etc; poems about women characters; poems about the English countryside; the bee poems; dark self-reflective poems; witty and ironic poems; childbearing poems.
4. Critical Reception and Publishing History Plath and Hughes, Hughes's editorial influence. Plath's reception in her lifetime, both in England and US. Changes in critical and public reception since her death.
5. Adaptation, interpretation and influence Continuing interest in Plath/Hughes; limited edition collections; BBC biopic; film of the Bell Jar; legal controversies; Aurelia Plath's Letters Home.
6. Guide to Further Reading Annotated guide including editions of Plath's journals, stories, poetry, manuscript/archival collections and secondary studies of Plath's work.

Über Autor(innen)

Linda Wagner-Martin is Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA. Her many books include Sylvia Plath: A Biography (Simon & Schuster 1987) and Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life (Macmillan, second edition 2003).