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Sylvia Plath

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  • Alexander, Paul, ed. Ariel Ascending: Writings about Sylvia Plath. New York: Harper & Row, 1985, 218 p. (Collects essays on Plath by such critics as Joyce Carol Oates and Elizabeth Hardwick as well as observations written by Anne Sexton, Ted Hughes, and Aurelia Plath.)
  • Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath. New York: Viking, 1991, 402 p. (Largely implicates Hughes in Plath's death. Alexander forgoes literary analysis of Plath's work in favor of tracing the lives of those affected by Plath's death and her rising popularity since 1962.)
  • Alvarez, A. “Your Story, My Story.” New Yorker 73, no. 45 (2 February 1998): 58-65. (Overview of Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters that reprints several poems from the volume.)
  • Annas, Pamela J. A Disturbance in Mirrors: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988, 186 pp. (Examines Plath's search for selfhood through her poetry.)
  • Axelrod, Steven Gould. Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, 257 pp. (Discusses events of Plath's life as they appear in her poetry.)
  • Boruch, Marianne. "Plath's Bees." Parnassus 17, No. 2 (Fall 1992): 76-95. (Examines the creative origin and significance of Plath's "Bee" poems in Ariel.)
  • Bredsdorff, Thomas. "The Biographical Pursuit: Biography as a Tool of Literary Criticism." Orbis Litterarum: International Review of Literary Studies 44, No. 2 (1989): 181-90. (Maintains that biography is a useful tool in critically assessing "less than perfect" literary works, such as Plath's poetry.)
  • Bremer, J. M. “Three Approaches to Sylvia Plath's Electra on Azalea Path.” Neophilologus 76, no. 2 (1992): 305-16. (Analyzes Plath's poem “Electra on Azalea Path” by explaining the mythical figure of Electra, providing an autobiographical sketch of Plath, and assessing the poem itself.)
  • Broe, Mary Lynn. “Plathologies: The ‘Blood Jet’ Is Bucks, Not Poetry.” Belles Lettres 10, no. 1 (Fall 1994): 48-62. (Examines the “murky politics of critical interpretation and disturbing editorial and censorship practices [surrounding] Plath's publication history.”)
  • Bundtzen, Lynda K. Plath's Incarnations: Woman and the Creative Process. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1983, 284 pp. (Discusses Plath poems as being particularly female.)
  • Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness. New York: Seabury Press, 1976, 388 p. (Presents a psychological portrait of Plath and her various personae, discusses how she integrated these identities into her life and art, and analyzes the formation of the Plath legend.)
  • Christiansen, Rupert. "Hanging Out the Washing." The Spectator 269, No. 8578 (5 December 1992): 45-6. (Negative review of Ian Hamilton's Keepers of the Flame. Christiansen argues that the book is "unfocused" and does not deeply explore the history of biography or sufficiently ponder philosophical and moral issues.)
  • Davis, William V. "Sylvia Plath's 'Ariel.'" Modern Poetry Studies 3 (1972): 176-84. (Provides critical analysis of the title poem from Ariel.)
  • Eder, Doris L. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Lady Lazarus." Contemporary Literature XXI, No. 2 (1980): 301-7. (Provides an overview of critical interpretations of the poem "Lady Lazarus.")
  • Folsom, Jack. "Death and Rebirth in Sylvia Plath's 'Berck-Plage.'" Journal of Modern Literature XVII, No. 4 (Spring 1991): 521-35. (Discusses countervailing elements of morbidity and affirmation in the poem "Berck-Plage.")
  • Frank, Elizabeth. "A Long Romance with Death." The New York Times Book Review (6 October 1991): 14-16. (Reviews The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath and Rough Magic. Frank applauds Hughes's silence regarding Plath but states that "no adequate biography can possibly be written as long as the Plath estate continues to exact editorial compliance as the price of full quotation.")
  • Friendly, Fred W. "Was Trust Betrayed?" The New York Times Book Review (25 February 1990): 1, 41-2. (Discusses Janet Malcolm's claim that biography and journalism are voyeuristic as he reviews Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer, in which Malcolm asserted that Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, misrepresented himself in order to gain access to the murder defendant Jeffrey MacDonald.)
  • Hargrove, Nancy D. “The Chronology of Sylvia Plath's Poems: 1956-1959.” Studies in Bibliography 45 (1992): 266-92. (Chronological bibliography of Plath's early poems, with supporting commentary from Plath's journals.)
  • Hayman, Ronald. The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1991, 235 p. (Writes of Plath's life, her college boyfriends, and the circumstances leading to her death. Hayman also relates the details of Plath's psychological history and Hughes's infidelity.)
  • Hughes, Ted. “On Sylvia Plath.” Raritan 14, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 1-10. (Discusses Plath's difficulties with writing narrative prose.)
  • Lant, Kathleen Margaret. "The Big Strip Tease: Female Bodies and Male Power in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath." Contemporary Literature XXXIV, No. 4 (Winter 1993): 620-69. (Explores Plath's portrayal of the female body and self-revelation, especially as influenced by confessional poetry and masculine semantic structures.)
  • Meyering, Sheryl L. Sylvia Plath: A Reference Guide, 1973-1988. Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1990, 203 pp. (Guide to Plath criticism and primary sources from 1973 to 1988.)
  • Nims, John Frederick. "The Poetry of Sylvia Plath: A Technical Analysis." In Ariel Ascending: Writings About Sylvia Plath, edited by Paul Alexander, pp. 46-60. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. (Provides detailed analysis of Plath's metaphorical presentation, language patterns, and poetic techniques.)
  • Pinsky, Robert. "Playing the Tragedy Queen." The New York Times Book Review (27 August 1991): 11. (Concedes that Anne Stevenson's suggestion in Bitter Fame that "Plath suffered the airless egocentrism of one in love with an ideal self" is plausible but notes that Olwyn Hughes's role in writing the book may leave many readers uncomfortable with the unsympathetic way in which the biography unfolds.)
  • Ramazani, Jahan. "'Daddy, I Have Had to Kill You': Plath, Rage, and the Modern Elegy." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 108, No. 5 (October 1993): 1142-56. (Examines innovative elements of anger and mourning in Plath's poetry, particularly as directed at her father.)
  • Rose, Jacqueline. The Haunting of Sylvia Plath. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992, 288 p. (Contends that various interpretations of Plath have arisen over the years because of the disturbing and troubling nature of her life and work.)
  • Showalter, Elaine. "Risky Business." The London Review of Books 16, No. 8 (22 September 1994): 19. (Ambivalent review of Linda Wagner-Martin's Telling Women's Lives. Showalter traces the rise of the women's biography genre and takes issue with Wagner-Martin's belief that only women are qualified to write biographies of women.)
  • Stevenson, Anne. Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989, 413 pp. (Explains the effects of fame on Plath's life and work both before and after her death; contains appendices written by Lucas Myers, Dido Merwin, and Richard Murphy.)
  • Sugars, Cynthia. “Sylvia Plath as Fantasy Space; or, The Return of the Living Dead.” Literature and Psychology 45, no. 3 (1999): 1-28. (Attempts to read Plath's works as fantasy, both to Plath and to the reader.)
  • Tabor, Stephen. Sylvia Plath: An Analytical Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Meckler Publishing Corporation, 1987, 268 pp. (Bibliography of Plath's primary works, focusing on monograph publications and Plath's contribution to periodicals.)
  • Thompson, Catherine. “‘Dawn Poems in Blood’: Sylvia Plath and PMS.” TriQuarterly, no. 80 (Winter 1990): 221-49. (Interprets Plath's poems and journal entries from a physiological point of view, arguing that Plath most likely suffered from severe premenstrual syndrome.)
  • Treglown, Jeremy. "Beware the Biographer." The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4674 (30 October 1992): 9. (Calls Keepers of the Flame "absorbing and drily funny." Treglown appreciates Hamilton's treatment of Henry James and Philip Larkin, but laments the author's failure to explore at length the ramifications of copyright legislation and the ethics of consent involved in biographical writing.)
  • Van Dyne, Susan R. Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993, 206 pp. (Examines Plath's texts as a key to her self-representation.)
  • Wagner, Linda W., ed. Sylvia Plath: The Critical Heritage. London and New York: Routledge, 1988, 332 pp. (Collects reviews and criticism of Plath's work.)
  • Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987, 282 p. (Focuses on Plath's desire to become the perfect wife and mother. Wagner-Martin, who was denied permission to quote from Plath's works, argues that Plath's quest led her to defer her development as a writer.)
  • Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999, 172 pp. (Literary biography of Plath.)

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Plath, Sylvia (Poetry Criticism)
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