The "Introduction" and first chapter lulled me into a false sense of complacency. The second chapter, which introduces the theories of Julia Kristeva quickly turned me off. In the Introduction and first chapter Mitchell offers a fairly comprehensive review of Plath scholarship from the 1960s and 1970s through the very present: 2011 in fact. These are very worthwhile reads though the tone of the writing is quite pompous.
In the second chapter, it was this set of sentences that made me shut the book for good:
"All of these concerns may be understood in terms of the thetic - the constitution of the subject through symbolic stratification (maternal repression, the imposition of the signifier-signified dyad and logico-semantic articulation) against its destruction by the irruption of semiotic drives, psychosis and fusion with the phallic mother; and these are enacted at every level of the text's intra-linguistic nexus (semantic, lexical, syntactic and phonological)."
Oh wait: that was one sentence, not a set of sentences. This kind of writing should be illegal. In the margin I bracketed this sentence with three letters and a mark of punctuation: WTF?
I did not finish the book and am disappointed that the writing was not good, clear writing. What's up with that cover? Seriously? Makes S. V. look good!
6 comments:
I didn't even read that sentence. Ugh.
Not sure this went through: Peter, I'm writing a chapter on Plath and Hughes right now in a larger scheme about dissociative experiences in poets: Ouija board, seances, automatic writing, voices. I've read the journals, the letters, the poetry, the short stories, The Bell Jar, Rose, Koren and Negev, Middlebrook, Alexander, Bloom, Vendler, Materer, Sword, tons of neuroscience on ECT and depression. I read Ferretter's article on the ECT; I see he has a book too, which I just ordered. What other books do you suggest are a must read for ways into her mind and creativity?
Jess - You're better off for not reading that sentence.
Carole - Thanks for your comment. Your approach to Plath and Hughes through the scheme of dissociative experiences in poets sounds wonderful. Books that I and found helpful include Heather Clark's The Grief of Influence, Nancy Hargrove's The Journey Toward Ariel, Judith Kroll's Chapters in a Mythology, and Gayle Wurst's Voice and Vision: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. I should say that I don't know whether these volumes will be at all helpful, but they are among my favorites.
pks
Thanks so much, Peter, for your thoughtful suggestions. That's just what I needed! I'll get on it.
Ok, I'm gonna have a bash at this. I think what he is getting at is that in her poems, Plath sets up a thing and writes about it in a particular way with imagery and meanings and at the same time works against this by conjuring up other things (images, meanings) that are opposed to the established thing and she does this in her choice of words, their ordering, meanings and sounds. Could have just said that instead of the unholy alliance of Hegel, Kristeva, Saussure and Freud that lurk in this word salad. Now, I'm off to read my Margaret Drabble novel. She, at least, can string a sentence together without causing the reader's eyeballs to bleed. G'night Peter! Cath
Cath- Thanks so much for your comment. In plain English it makes sense. Almost. I'm just too generally educated to get it... As this is the case, thanks for keeping it relatively monosyllabic! Perhaps I'm spoiled by my involvement in Plath Profiles in which it is an unspoken mission to make all writing on Plath accessible (though, perhaps our essays are too dumbed-down for higher intellects!).
All jesting aside, I do appreciate your comment and am sincere that it does help.
pks
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