Thesis (M.A.)--Mississippi State University. Department of English. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-248). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-03-03Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:32:26Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 francoso_mel_me_arafcl.pdf: 570173 bytes, checksum: 6cb7d11ca7ae8fd70bca0b935a49e9d3 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar a imagética do corpo e da morte na escritura de Ariel, a coletânea que contém alguns dos últimos poemas escritos por Sylvia Plath antes de seu suicídio, em fevereiro de 1963, e que tem sido alvo de polêmicas discussões devido ao fato de que foi publicada postumamente por seu marido, o também poeta Ted Hughes, e apresenta uma seqüência diversa daquela que a autora havia deixado em seus manuscritos. Nossa análise vale-se da seqüência em que Ariel foi organizado pela poeta, bem como de textos que representam os caminhos percorridos pela crítica da poesia plathiana, e considera tanto o caráter autobiográfico dessa poesia como a influência que a tradição literária e cultural exerce sobre ela. Acreditamos que desse modo pode-se visualizar o cenário em que se dá o posicionamento da persona no seu discurso e, a partir de então, considerar o espaço poético como palco da morte. A escolha dessa via de acesso mostra não somente o uso que a poeta faz do material autobiográfico em confluência com retomadas da tradição literária e de episódios históricos, religiosos e mitológicos, mas também o modo como a trajetória da voz lírica tipicamente feminina de seus poemas é dramatizada no cenário composto por essa teia dialógica, sugerindo uma releitura da figura tradicionalista da mulher. Por conta do parentesco entre morte e escritura na poética plathiana, sugerimos que a trajetória de sua voz lírica representa a própria relação do poeta com sua escrita, uma relação marcada pela morte e que constitui uma instância de criação, por meio de uma experiência que se assemelha ao impossível. / The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the imagery of body and death in the writing of Ariel. This collection contains some of the late poems written by Sylvia Plath before her suicide, in February 1963, and has been the target of polemic discussions due to the fact that it was posthumously published by her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, and it presents a sequence which diverges from the one proposed by the author in her manuscripts. Our analyses uses the sequence in which Ariel was organized by Sylvia Plath, as well as texts that represent the roads traveled by the criticism of the plathian poetry, and considers both its autobiographical character and the influence that the literary and cultural tradition exerts over it. We believe that this way, the scenery that holds the positioning of this persona in the speech can be visualized, and then we can consider the poetic space as the stage of death. The choice of this via of access shows not only the use which the poet makes from the autobiographical material in confluence with the recalling of the literary tradition and of historic, religious and mythological episodes, but also the way the trajectory of the typically feminine voice of her poems is dramatized in the scenery composed by this dialogic weave, suggesting a rereading of the traditionalist figure of the woman. Because of the relationship that connects death with writing in the plathian poetics, we suggest that the trajectory of this lyrical voice represents the proper relationship of the poet towards his writing, which is marked by death and constitutes an instance of creation, through an experience that resembles the impossible.

This thesis endeavors to intervene in the manner Plath’s maternity poems have been discussed by examining the psychological negotiations of identity that occurred while the speaker’s in Plath’s poems are pregnant with child. The method of this thesis is also a departure from the historicized criticism and interpretations of Plath’s poems that often conflate the experience of the speaker with the details of Plath’s life. This analysis will focus on the poems “Metaphors,” “You’re” and “Nick and the Candlestick” which feature subtle imagery that not only illustrate the speaker’s preoccupation with her own pregnancy but also constructs a metaphorical representation of the maternal body as the locus for the mother’s negotiation of identity. The different forms that the maternal body is represented through, from inanimate objects to a cavernous opening, allow the speaker to fully explore a broad gamut of emotions related to motherhood. The enlargement and reduction of the maternal body, the use of relational language and local instances of transformation are all motifs and conventions that the speakers in Plath’s poems use to navigate the shifting terrain of individual identity during and after maternity. In examining the more abstract poems related to maternity that depict the maternal body through metaphor, this article endeavors to explore the disparate sensations and experiences conveyed in Plath’s poetry.

The definition of one's femininity and its reflection in poetic language are two recurring issues examined by contemporary feminist critics. In their works, they consistently challenge the opinion that true poetry is essentially masculine, and that a woman poet is inevitably an inferior poet. Sylvia Plath, whose poetry represents the central subject of this thesis, could hardly be considered an inferior poet. Despite her early death, Plath's poetry continues to be immensely influential, and it tends to be adopted as an example by feminist critics who attempt to define the branch American women's poetry, reaching back to poets such as Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson. From their point of view, Plath's works illustrate the fact that women's poetry has not only its history, but also its language. One may thus discover interesting parallels between the French-based concept of l'écriture féminine and Plath's poetic language. For the representatives of the l'écriture féminine movement Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva, Western discourse is phallogocentric, i.e. based on the centrality of the phallus as a primary signifier. To disrupt the traditional (masculine) discourse, they neither propose a total split between the "male" and the "female" signifiers nor do they encourage women to...

This essay analyzes Esther Greenwood’s identity crisis, mental illness, and recovery in Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar (1963) from a feminist psychoanalytic perspective. The purpose is to understand the cultural and psychological mechanisms behind the main character’s situation. Esther is a talented and hardworking student who dreams of a literary career in 1950’s America. At the age of nineteen, events and realizations launch Esther into an identity crisis that leads to severe depression. Why she falls ill, and the nature of her illness and recovery, are up for interpretation. The thesis of this essay is that Esther Greenwood’s identity crisis, mental illness, and recovery can be explained using a feminist interpretation of Freud’s theories of hysteria and melancholia, and the development of the differences between the sexes, which includes the Freudian concepts of castration, bisexuality, and the Oedipus complex.

In her 1929 essay "A Room of One's Own," Virginia Woolf famously asserts that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (4). This concept places an immediate importance on the role of the Modernist female subject as an artist and as an architect, constructing the places and spaces that she exists within. With Woolf's argument as its point of departure, this thesis investigates the theme of female space in two Modernist texts: Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928) and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963). The respective protagonists of Quicksand and The Bell Jar, Helga Crane and Esther Greenwood, each undertake journeys to obtain spaces that are purely their own. However, this thesis positions each space that Helga and Esther occupy as both male-constructed and male-dominated in order to address the inherent gendering of space and its impact on the development of feminine identities. This thesis focuses specifically on the roles of the mother, the muse, and the female mentor, tracking the spaces in which Helga and Esther begin to adhere to these roles. Expanding on Lauren Berlant's theory of cruel optimism, this thesis will use the term "cruel femininity" to support its intervening claim that the respective relationships that Helga and Esther each have with their own feminine identities begin to turn cruel as they internalize the male-dominated spatial structures surrounding them. Overall, this thesis argues that there is no space in existence where Helga and Esther can realize their full potential as human beings, as long as the spatial structures within their communities continue to be controlled by hegemonic, patriarchal beliefs.

No description available.

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar portrays the complexities of female identity and the pernicious outcomes of societal pressure on mental health. At its core, the novel presents an exploration of female anxiety and the ways in which societal expectations and gender norms contribute to the erosion of one's mental well-being. Through the lens of feminist psychoanalysis, this thesis will claim that the novel's recurring motifs of confinement and anxiety – including its central image of the bell jar – function not only as an expression of Esther's mental illness, but also as a social commentary. More specifically, it will argue that these motifs make visible how Esther's anxiety and depression are the result of the interplay between external pressure and internal struggles. Since the novel is often regarded as a roman à clef, this essay will furthermore argue that these motifs are the result of Sylvia Plath's unconscious.