Brain

Representing Sylvia Plath

2011 · ref. ZB-XH6C-AWMF — 2011 Cambridge University Press hardcover edition. Light reading wear else very good condition. From the cover: 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. Contents: List of illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: 'Purdah' and the enigma of representation by Sally Bayley and Tracy Brain PART I: CONTEXTS 'Mailed into space': on Sylvia Plath's letters by Jonathan Ellis 'The photographic chamber of the eye': Plath photography and the post-confessional muse by Anita Helle 'O the tangles of that old bed': fantasies of incest and the 'Daddy' narrative in Ariel by Lynda K. Bundtzen Plath and torture: cultural contexts for Plath's imagery of the Holocaust by Steven Gould Axelrod PART II: POETICS AND COMPOSITION 'The trees of the mind are black the light is blue': sublime encounters in Sylvia Plath's 'tree poems' by Sally Bayley Coming to terms with colour: Plath's visual aesthetic by Laure de Nervaux-Gavoty 'Madonna of the Refrigerator': mapping Sylvia Plath's double in 'The Babysitters' drafts by Kathleen Connors 'Procrustean identity': Sylvia Plath's women's magazine fiction by Luke Ferretter PART III: REPRESENTATION Confession contrition and concealment: evoking Plath in Ted Hughes's Howls & Whispers by Lynda K. Bundtzen Fictionalizing Sylvia Plath by Tracy Brain Primary representations: three artists respond to Sylvia Plath Adolescent Plath - The Girl Who Would Be God by Suzie Hanna Bodily imprints: a choreographic response to Sylvia Plath's 'poppy poems' by Kate Flatt with Sally Bayley Stella Vine's peanut-crunching Plath by Sally Bayley Bibliography Index Cambridge University Press hardcover