The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine the representation of female madness in The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, and Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood, with a particular emphasis on the depiction of madness as a form of revolt against the oppression of women in patriarchal societies. I focus specifically on the textual construction of female insanity in three twentieth-century reading of these depictions in relation to an influential contemporary example of Western psychological discourse, namely The Divided Self (1960). Drawing on the work of Western feminist scholars such as Elaine Showalter and Lillian Feder, I engage with the broader questions of the female malady and dilemma. I pay attention not only to the various tropes, metaphors and images which are employed in the representation of madness, but also give attention to the explanations of madness that are offered in each text as well as the ways in which the various stories of madness are resolved. In the introduction, I offer an overview of the history of madness (and female madness in particular) and consider the importance of Laing and the antipsychiatry movement in challenging conventional definitions. In Chapter 1, I explore the depiction of madness in The Bell Jar, with the focus on the protagonist, Esther, whose madness, I argue, is represented as a conflict between female creativity and mid-twentieth century feminine ideals. In Chapter 2, I discuss Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel which gives a voice to the madwoman in the attic in Charlotte Jane Eyre. I argue tha rather that a particular construction of madness that of the stereotypical wild madwoman is imposed upon her. In addition, I argue that her madness is presented as the result of being abandoned and cast as insane by her husband, whom she marries as part of an economic exchange. In Chapter 3, I explore the ways in which, in Surfacing madness is attributed both to her abortion as well as to the realisation of her own complicity in the patriarchal oppression of women and nature. In all three novels, I suggest, female madness is represented sympathetically as a reaction to, and revolt against patriarchal oppression. In addition, I argue that each novel makes a contribution to an emancipatory feminist politics by suggesting several routes of transcendence or escape. In my concluding chapter, I draw on the previous discussion of the various ways in which madness is figured in the novels in order to show how, in contesting stereotypical views, the three authors must create new vocabularies and metaphors of madness, thus engaging with patriarchal language itself. In this way, they not only contest normative constructions of the female malady but also bend patriarchal language into new shapes. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / English / MA / Unrestricted

By examining critically poems in which Sylvia Plath’s speakers appear as daughters, wives, and mothers, this study situates Plath as an artist operating within Romantic and Modernist traditions of exemplary suffering. The thesis offers, on the one hand, a line of inquiry that accounts in part for the nature of the enduring Romantic interest in Plath, the synonymy of her cultural iconicity with pain or struggle, the way she has been read as an exemplary sufferer. On the other, it indicates Plath’s own self-conscious involvement in the Romantic tradition, the way she participates in and complicates that lineage by imbuing it with Modernist, feminist concerns. The thesis thus clarifies some vital, historico-artistic dimensions of Plath’s position as artistic sufferer (what qualifies it as exemplary), and scrutinizes the workings of suffering within the selected poems, the specifics of Plath’s exemplarity. Three thematic banners spanning across the poetic body of work are demarcated: representations of the daughter, representations of the wife, representations of the mother. All three denote major sites of conflict (agons), sites of struggle. They make for volatile, generative, provocative loci showing poetic engagements with suffering; as such, they highlight the gendered nature of the preoccupation. These categories are investigated as evolving narratives, trajectories that can be traced from the early stages of Plath’s poetic career right up until its end. Within each category special attention, in the form of a close reading, is given to select poems regarded as emblematic of a particular facet in the unfurling narrative. The study maps out and evaluates the manifestations, forms, and functions of a suffering whose genesis lies in prominent literary-historical traditions. / Thesis (PhD (English))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / English / PhD (English) / Restricted

In 1953, Sylvia Plath broke her leg while skiing. This event permeated her writing across genres, retold at least eight times, each with a unique perspective based on the genre and her intended audience. While she told the story non-fictionally in her journals, she also adapted the story for letters to her mother and friends and fictionalized the event in short stories and The Bell Jar. This thesis will examine 8 versions of the same event – critically examining how the culture and gender expectations of the 1950s and 1960s influenced her writing depending on her audience. This examination of the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction will work to help eliminate the assumption in certain current scholarship that all events in Plath’s fiction can be used to examine and explain her suicide. The chapters will be divided by genre of writing, with a conclusion on the implications for future Plath studies.

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I denna studie analyseras sju dikter ur Sylvia Plaths diktsamling ”Ariel”. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka representationen av kvinnlighet och manlighet i utvalda dikter från Sylvia Plaths diktsamling ”Ariel”. Metoden som har använts är diskursanalys som använder begreppen av Laclau och Mouffe. Dessa begrepp användes även som teori, samt att teorier av Judith Butler och Lena Gemzöe har använts. Studien visade på att kvinnligheten i Plaths dikter är väldigt ambivalent, detta gällde även för de manliga subjekten som figurerar i texten men kunde dock ses som mer normativa.

Birutės Pūkelevičiūtės, Liūnės Sutemos ir Sylvia‘os Plath poezijoje meilės ir mirties eroso problematika skleidžiasi kaip ribinių patirčių ištiktis. Kūryba šios autorėms pasirodo kaip vienintelė niša, saugi sfera, kurioje kūrėjos gali jaustis laisvos, manifestuojančios, kuriančios naujus ir pertvarkančios senus archajinio pasaulio modelius. Galima teigti, kad B. Pūkelevičiūtės, Liūnė Sutemos ir S. Plath rašymas mitų ar ritualų motyvais visų pirma leidžia šių autorių kūrybą interpretuoti būtent mitopoetikos lauke. Tiriamojoje poezijoje lyrinis „Aš“ nuolat kinta dėl išorinio pasaulio moderniųjų iniciacijų: II pasaulinis karas – mirties ir prisikėlimo (naujojo „Aš“) suvoktis, emigracijos problema (Tėvynės, Dievo ilgesys, skausminga savasties būtis), meilės ištiktis (nuo kuriančios ir griaunančios aistros, meilės ir mirties eroso iki mitinio ar liturginio pasaulio kaip išeities terpės). Autorių poezijoje lyriniai subjektai – archajinio pasaulio dalis, tačiau būdami moderniajame pasaulyje ir priimdami jo taisykles – perteikia jas kaip tam tikrą koncepciją. Šios koncepcijos pagrindas – mito ir modernumo jungtis, mito perkūrimas, gamtos išjautimas ir kontempliacija kelyje tarp gėrio ir blogio principų, tarp dievui Erotui artimų stokos ir pilnatvės būsenų. B. Pūkelevičiūtės ir Liūnės Sutemos poezijoje gausu biblinių asociacijų, liturginių motyvų, kurie veikia ir kaip apsivalymo, ir kaip manifesto forma. Ambivalentiška S. Plath poezijoje lyrinis subjektas išjaučia arba savyje... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė, Liūnė Sutema and Sylvia Plath’s poetry unholds love and death Eros problems as a stuck of marginal experiences. Creation for the authors appears as a single niche, secure area where they can feel free, manifesting, developing new and transforming the old models of archaic world. It can be stated, that Liūnė Sutema and Sylvia Plath’s writing in myth and ritual motives in particular can be precisely interpreted as myth poetics. The lyric “I” is constantly changing due to external world of modern initiations: World War II - the death and resurrection (the new "I") realization, emigration (longing for the homeland, God, painful self – being), love struck (from developing and destructive passion, the Eros of love and death to the mythical or liturgical world as the source medium). The lyrical subjects in authors‘ poetry is the part of archaic world, but being the in modern world and accepting its rules, represent them as a certain concept. The basis of this conception is a connection between myth and modernity, the recreation of myth, the sensation of nature and contemplation on the path in between good and evil principles, amongst Erot’s conditions of lack and fullness. Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė and Liūnė Sutema’s poetry is full of biblical associations, liturgical motives which act as a cleansing and as a manifest form. In S. Plath's poetry, the lyrical subject is ambivalently bearing or sublimating the death of ‘Nietzsche God’, experiences the Nazi genocide... [to full text]

Submitted by Matheus Oliveira (torresdeoliveiramatheus@gmail.com) on 2018-06-05T02:35:47Z No. of bitstreams: 2 DissMTO.pdf: 1140794 bytes, checksum: efa100ff1e725c5cb8d63727b7cecb37 (MD5) carta_dissertacao-1.jpg: 575797 bytes, checksum: 44c335003923632b7f80f77559234b6e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Eunice Nunes (eunicenunes6@gmail.com) on 2018-06-05T11:55:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 DissMTO.pdf: 1140794 bytes, checksum: efa100ff1e725c5cb8d63727b7cecb37 (MD5) carta_dissertacao-1.jpg: 575797 bytes, checksum: 44c335003923632b7f80f77559234b6e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Eunice Nunes (eunicenunes6@gmail.com) on 2018-06-05T12:06:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 DissMTO.pdf: 1140794 bytes, checksum: efa100ff1e725c5cb8d63727b7cecb37 (MD5) carta_dissertacao-1.jpg: 575797 bytes, checksum: 44c335003923632b7f80f77559234b6e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-05T12:06:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 DissMTO.pdf: 1140794 bytes, checksum: efa100ff1e725c5cb8d63727b7cecb37 (MD5) carta_dissertacao-1.jpg: 575797 bytes, checksum: 44c335003923632b7f80f77559234b6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / The present thesis aims to study the short stories The Wishing Box and The Fifty-Ninth Bear, by Sylvia Plath, under theoretical and critical perspectives which allow it to observe a dialogue in those texts with their historical context, on a dialectical relation between form and content as postulated by Fredric Jameson. We intend to elucidate how those narratives can be read beyond the autobiographical and therefore they articulate in their formal structure a female critical view of marriage in Cold War America. Historicizing both of these short stories using alterity as mediator and following the cultural model of understanding the female literary tradition, we will semantically broaden her criticism by inserting the fragments in the History. In addition, this critical exam, by electing Plath's short prose, allows us to shed light on the overlooked scope of her ouvre. / O objetivo desta dissertação de mestrado é estudar os contos The Wishing Box e The Fifty-Ninth Bear, de Sylvia Plath, sob uma perspectiva teórica-crítica que permita observar nesses textos um diálogo com o seu contexto de produção em uma relação dialética entre forma e conteúdo, como postulada por Fredric Jameson. Desse modo, buscaremos elucidar como as duas narrativas, para além das possibilidades da leitura autobiográfica, mobilizam em sua organização formal uma visão crítica da mulher no casamento durante a Guerra Fria. Historicizando esses contos sob o código mediador da alteridade, seguindo os parâmetros do modelo cultural dos estudos de escrita de autoria feminina, ampliaremos semanticamente a fortuna crítica da artista ao inserirmos esses fragmentos no todo da História. Além disso, este exercício, ao eleger a prosa curta de Plath, permite lançar luzes ao escopo escurecido de seu trabalho artístico.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:39:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Maria Barile Alessandri.pdf: 2847855 bytes, checksum: da4b449a9f951bfd9425b3db054e19b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-20 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This thesis is a study about the suicide by means of Sylvia Plath. This American writer perpetrated suicide at the age of 30, after 2 attempts: the first at the age of 20, when in the university and the second at the age of 29, already married and mother of two young children. Although her literary production is considered by many as autobiography, in this search I have used only the diaries, handwritten and letters edited by Karen Kukil in The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950 - 1962. From these registers I make psychoanalytic considerations based on the Freud s theory and Lacan s teaches. The interest of this theme succeeded from the clinic activities. I verify, and this constitutes my thesis, that in the melancholy, when faced with I m nothing, I m no more than rubbish , stated by Lacan, succeed from the conviction of the inefficiency or non existence of the Other s love, easily can lead in to the suicide. In the melancholy, the subject, faced with the foreclosure of the Name-of-the- Father, may find an imaginary supplying. However, towards the Lacan s node theory, the supplying of the foreclosure of the Name-of-the-Father may take place towards Sinthome / Esta tese é um estudo acerca do suicídio, por meio de Sylvia Plath. Esta escritora norte-americana suicidou-se com trinta anos, após duas tentativas de suicídio: a primeira aos vinte anos, enquanto fazia faculdade, e a segunda, aos vinte e nove anos, já casada e com dois filhos pequenos. Embora sua obra literária seja considerada por muitos estudiosos como autobiográfica, utilizo nesta pesquisa apenas os diários, manuscritos e cartas que foram editados por Karen Kukil em Os diários de Sylvia Plath. 1950-1962. A partir destes registros realizo considerações psicanalíticas fundamentada na teoria freudiana e no ensino de Lacan. O interesse por este tema vem da clínica. Constato, e isto constitui minha tese, que na melancolia, quando diante do Nada sou, não sou mais que um lixo , formulado por Lacan, advém a certeza da ineficácia ou da inexistência do amor do Outro, facilmente pode haver a precipitação ao suicídio. Na melancolia, o sujeito, diante da foraclusão do Nome-do-Pai, pode encontrar uma suplência imaginária. Porém, com a teoria dos nós de Lacan, a suplência à foraclusão do Nome-do-Pai pode se dar via Sinthoma