"I'm a riddle in nine syllables...." Metaphors by Sylvia Plath
- Focuses on the writings of Sylvia Plath to reveal her cultural and political concerns - a thoroughly new approach away from biographical readings of her work.
- Plath's unpublished letters are examined, as well as hand-written drafts of poems, typescripts of The Bell Jar and annotated copies of the books that most influenced her.
- Provides new close readings of stories and poems that have seldom been talked about, or have been discussed in mainly biographical terms.
Despite being widely read and studied, the writing of Sylvia Plath has been relatively neglected in relation to the attention given to her life and what drove her to suicide. This exciting new study,
The Other Sylvia Plath, introduces completely new approaches to her writing, taking the away from the familiar concentration to reveal that Plath as a writer who was concerned with a much wider range of important cultural and political topics. Tracy Brain provides new close readings of stories and poems that have seldom been talked about, or have been discussed in mainly biographical terms. Unlike most of the existing literary criticism,
The Other Sylvia Plath shifts the focus away from biographical readings and encompasses the full range of Plath's poetry, prose, journals and letters using a variety of critical methods. It argues that there is another Sylvia Plath, a writer who was much more interested in a world beyond her own skin than critics have allowed. Plath's unpublished letters are examined, as well as hand-written drafts of poems, typescripts of
The Bell Jar and annotated copies of the books that most influenced her. The book also explores the ways in which Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath drafted their poems together and wrote poems in answer to each other. It is also the first volume to look at Plath's home-made art scrapbooks and to analyse the significance of the cover designs and marketing of Plath's work.
Tracy Brain is at University of Stirling.
