The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Sylvia Plath's second volume of poetry, Ariel, published posthumously in 1965, shocked and provoked reviewers with its unexpected intensity and power, and the publication of her Collected Poems in 1981 confirmed her as a poet of stature and maturity.

Beginning with reviews of her first collection, The Colossus, the reader is clearly guided through the profusion of critical material that has variously described Plath as feminine and feminist, personal and political, an American modernist and an English Romantic. The guide includes critical assessments from Robert Lowell, Sandra M. Gilbert, and Jacqueline Rose, among others.

SYNOPSIS

This collection of reviews of the writing of Sylvia Plath is arranged in sections on reviews of The Colossus and Ariel, unifying strategies and early feminist readings of the 1970s, cultural and historical readings, feminist and psychoanalytic strategies, and new directions. Brief excerpts by numerous critics are framed by analysis and historical background.