Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

A selective list of online literary criticism for poet Sylvia Plath, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the Modern Language Association Guidelines for Web Pages

main page | 20th-century literature | 20th-century poetry | 20th-century women writers | confessional poetry

Literary criticism

Aird, Eileen. "'Poem for a Birthday' to 'Three Women': Development in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath." Critical Quarterly 21 (1979)

Annas, Pamela J. "The Self in the World: The Social Context of Sylvia Plath's Late Poems." Women's Studies 7 (1980)

Axelrod, Steven. A substantial introduction to Sylvia Plath from the Literary Encyclopedia, 17 September 2003

Axelrod, Steven. A review of Axelrod's Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. First page of article only. Reviewed by Susan Van Dyne in The New England Quarterly, Dec. 1991

Bonds, Diane S. "The Separative Self in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar." Women's Studies 18 (May 1990)

Britzolakis, Christina. A review of Sylvia Plath and the Theatre of Mourning by Christina Britzolakis. (Clarendon Press 1999). "Emphasizing the rhetoricity and self-reflexivity of Plath's writing, Britzolakis convincingly argues that the texts reflect a sophisticated awareness of audience, literary tradition, and the cultural authority of poetic discourse." Reviewed by Steven Axelrod. Criticism (Fall 2000)

Bryant, Marsha. "Plath, domesticity, and the art of advertising." Bryant explores the ways in which "Sylvia Plath is not only one of America's major poets, but also literary culture's ultimate commodity." College Literature (Summer 2002)

Bucker, Park. Bucker discusses Sylvia Plath's marginal notes in her copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Yemassee (Fall/Winter 1995)

Churchwell, Sarah. "Ted Hughes and the corpus of Sylvia Plath." Criticism (Winter 1998)

Diehl, Joanne Feit. "Plath's Bodily Ego" in Women Poets and the American Sublime: Women Poets and the American Sublime (Indiana UP 1990) Publisher's web site. At Google Books

Dobbs Jeannine. "Viciousness in the Kitchen': Sylvia Plath's Domestic Poetry." Modern Language Studies 7 (1977)

Folsom, Jack. "Death and Rebirth in Sylvia Plath's Berck-Plage." Journal of Modern Literature XVII (1991)

Freedman, William. The Monster in Plath's 'Mirror.' Papers on Language and Literature 108 (Oct. 1993)

Gerbig, Andrea and Anja Muller-Wood. "Trapped in language: aspects of ambiguity and intertextuality in selected poetry and prose by Sylvia Plath," Style (Spring 2002)

Gill, Jo. "Textual Confessions: Narcissism in Anne Sexton's early poetry." Gill examines the current, generally low critical esteem for confessional poetry. Twentieth Century Literature (Spring 2004)

Hughes, Ted. "On Sylvia Plath." Raritan 14 (Fall 1994)

Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "Sylvia Plath's Psychic Landscapes." English Studies 71 (Dec. 1990)

Luck, Jessica Lewis. "Exploring the 'Mind of the Hive': Embodied Cognition in Sylvia Plath's Bee Poems." [Criticism and interpretation, Bees in literature, Literature and science]. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 26 (Fall 2007)

Martin, Wendy. "'God's Lioness'--Sylvia Plath, Her Prose and Poetry." Women's Studies 1 (1973)

Moramarco, Fred. A lengthy essay has a section on Sylvia Plath among other poets who would move "toward a poetry centered in the physical self of the poet who produced it. They participated collectively in the mid-century poetic climate that revolutionized poetry and greatly broadened its possibilities." From Moramarco's book Containing Multitudes

Oates, J. "The Death Throes Of Romanticism" Article on Sylvia Plath's poetry by novelist Oates. Southern Review 9 (July 1973)

Oates, J. "Raising Lady Lazarus," a review of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 NY Times, 5 Nov. 2002

Oates, J. The noted novelist reviews Winter Trees, Sylvia Plath's last volume of poetry. Library Journal, 1 November 1972

Oberg, Arthur. "Sylvia Plath: 'Love, Love, My Season.'" In Modern American Lyric (Rutgers UP 1978)

Perloff, Marjorie. "Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems: A Review-Essay." Perloff considers twelve poems omitted from Ariel, including "The Rabbit Catcher," "Thalidomide," "Barren Woman," "A Secret," "The Jailer," "The Detective," "The Other," "Magi," "Stopped Dead," "The Courage of Shutting-Up," " Purdah," and "Amnesiac." Resources for American Literary Study, Vol. XI, (Autumn 1981)

Perloff, Marjorie. "'A Ritual for Being Born Twice': Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar." Contemporary Literature 13 (Autumn 1972)

Strangeways, Al. "'The Boot in the Face': The Problem of the Holocaust in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath." Contemporary Literature, Vol. XXXVII (Fall 1996)

Trinidad, David. "'Two Sweet Ladies': Sexton and Plath's Friendship and Mutual Influence." [Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath] American Poetry Review, Nov/Dec 2006

Upton, Lee. "'I / Have a self to recover': the restored Ariel." Literary Review, Summer 2005

Uroff, M.D. "Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration." Iowa Review 8 (1977)

Vendler, Helen. Brief comments on "Lady Lazarus" from eleven important critics, including Dr. Vendler, at the Modern American Poetry web site (U of Ill.)

Wagner-Martin, Linda. A review of Linda Wagner-Martin's Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Reviewed by Jeffrey Meyers in the National Review, 18 March 1988

Wagner, Linda. "Plath's 'Ariel': 'Auspicious Gales.'" Concerning Poetry 10 (1977)

Wagner, Linda. "Plath's The Bell Jar as Female 'Bildungsroman.'" Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12 (1986)

Zivley, Sherry. Sylvia Plath's transformations of modernist paintings. College Literature, Summer 2002

A Univ. of Texas project compares Anne Sexton's "My Friend, My Friend" and Sylvai Plath's "Daddy," demonstrating echoes of Sexton's lines in Plath's poem (removed)

Introduction &lighter reading

Sylvia Plath section at Modern American Poetry (U of Ill.)includes excerpts from reputable critical articles on various aspects of Plath's work and life

"Sylvia Plath." An introduction to Plath. Also "A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry." Academy of American Poets.

"Sylvia Plath." Poetry Archive. Directors, Andrew Motion & Richard Carrington.

Introduction to Sylvia Plath by Linda Wagner-Martin, from Heath handbooks

"Jane and Sylvia." Poet Ruth Fainlight reflects on her personal relationships with author Jane Bowles in Tangiers in the 1960's and with Sylvia Plath. Crossroads (Poetry Society of America)

"The Mad Poets Society." An article about McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, "once America's most literary mental institution," where Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Anne Sexton spent time. The Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2001) by Beam, Alex (removed)

A NY Times feature page on Sylvia Plath contains links to original Times reviews and articles on her

Cult Classics: 3: The Bell Jar Independent (London), 29 April 2005 by Christina Patterson

Tales of the City: The fatal attraction of Sylvia Plath. Independent (London), Jan. 2004 by Walsh, John

Dying for melodrama: why does Sylvia Plath still seduce the adolescent psyche? Psychology Today, Nov.-Dec. 2003 by Quart, Alissa

Shots in the dark: are the stories of the 20th century's most risk-taking women artists the movie's new dramas? Interview, Oct. 2003 by Fuller, Graham

Beyond The Bell Jar Chicago Sun-Times, 4 Sept. 2003 by Laurie Levy

Biographically-slanted article on Sylvia Plath and her journals in Salon.com, 30 May 2000

Web Sites

Web site for Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature: A scholarly journal devoted to the study of women's literature of all periods and nationalities [Feminist and Women's Studies]

The Sylvia Plath Forum contains a discussion group along with an extensive list of links to newspaper articles about Plath, reviews of books about Plath, and more

main page | 20th-century literature | 20th-century poetry | 20th-century women writers | confessional poetry

1998-2010 by Jan Pridmore