This page intentionally left blank TheCambridgeIntroductionto Sylvia Plath SylviaPlathiswidelyrecognisedasoneoftheleadingfiguresin twentieth-centuryAnglo-Americanliteratureandculture.Herworkhas remainedconstantlyinprintintheUKandUSA(andinnumerous translatededitions)sincetheappearanceofherfirstcollectionin1960. Plath’sownwritinghasbeensupplementedoverthedecadesbyawealth ofcriticalandbiographicalmaterial.TheCambridgeIntroductionto SylviaPlathoffersanauthoritativeandcomprehensiveguidetoPlath’s poetry,proseandautobiographicalwritings.Itoffersacriticaloverview ofkeyreadings,debatesandissuesfromalmostfiftyyearsofPlath scholarship;drawsattentiontothehistorical,literary,nationaland gendercontextswhichprovidetheframeworkforherwriting;and providesinformedandattentivereadingsofherwork.Accessibly written,thisbookwillbeofgreatvaluetostudentsbeginningtheir explorationsofthisimportantwriter. JoGillisLecturerinTwentieth-CenturyLiteratureattheUniversityof Exeter. The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath JO GILL CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521867269 © Jo Gill 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-57346-0 eBook (Dawsonera) ISBN-13 978-0-521-86726-9 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-68695-2 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Preface page ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviationsandtextualnote xii 1 Life 1 Family 1 Marriage 7 England 10 2 Contexts 14 Literarycontexts 15 ‘PoetessofAmerica’ 17 Confessionalpoetry 19 Historicalandideologicalcontexts 21 WorldWarII 22 Postwarcultures 24 Domesticityan dthesuburbs 26 England 28 3 Early poetry 29 Juveniliaandotherearlypoems 30 Englishinfluences 33 TheColossus 35 Creativityandself-creation 40 CrossingtheWater 43 Transformationandchange 44 Displacement 49 v vi Contents 4 Ariel and later poetry 51 Ariel 53 Echoes 53 Thebeesequence,‘LadyLazarus’and‘Daddy’ 58 Ariel:TheRestoredEdition 64 WinterTreesandotherlatepoems 66 ThreeWomen 69 5 The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams 73 TheBellJar 73 Narrativevoice 78 Thedouble 79 Subjectivity 83 JohnnyPanicandtheBibleofDreams 84 Value 85 Englishstories 90 America 91 6 Letters Home and Journals 93 LettersHome 93 Renderingaccount 97 Leavinghome 100 TheJournalsofSylviaPlath 101 TheJournalsofSylviaPlath(1982):theabridged edition 101 Masks 104 TheJournalsofSylviaPlath(2000):theunabridged edition 105 7 Reception 111 Biography 111 Confessional 115 Mythology 117 Feministreadings 119 Psychoanalyticalapproaches 123 Contents vii Historyandpolitics 125 Newdirections 128 Notes 129 Furtherreading 140 Index 146