In December, or possibly January 2010, look for Dr. Lisa Narbeshuber's Confessing Cultures: Politics and the Self in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath to be published. From the back of the book:
"This book argues that in her late poems Sylvia Plath adopts a new attitude towards her art and towards technique in general. Instead of constructing the perfect hypnotic illusions of her earlier poems, she relentlessly reflects upon the artificial in fantasy; she ruthlessly criticizes the seduction of illusion, so that the spell of her earlier poetry now reappears, only deformed, unnatural, disturbing. Now the façades appear as façades, artifice as artifice, device as device; all of which brings the disturbance of the earlier poems from the underground painfully into the open air. In this respect, her late poetry can be seen as commenting on, or critiquing, her early poetry’s desire to create ideal fantasy worlds and the seductive pleasures they offer. This later, metapoetic Plath displays brilliance for isolating the machinery of clichés, images, and techniques of everyday discourse of the 50s and early 60s, the post-war mythologies and material practices that shattered and reorganized communal life. All the spaces, public and private, that we put our faith in (churches, hospitals, town centres, homes), all the relationships and institutions wherein we find comfort and stability (family, marriage, friendship, religion, education) become in Plath’s hands a collection of props, devices, and techniques: a bag of tricks. On one level, then, the pleasurable or, at least, mythic codes become unavailable, but on another level, Plath, rather than leaving her readers empty handed, provides them with a toolkit for analysing and transforming the machinery of experience."
Lisa Narbeshuber is Associate Professor of English at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and is no stranger to Plath.
The details: English literary studies monograph series no. 103. 103 pages. Price $15. ISBN 978- 1-55058-385-4.
Updates to the publication date will be made as they become known. This book is listed on Amazon.com.
"This book argues that in her late poems Sylvia Plath adopts a new attitude towards her art and towards technique in general. Instead of constructing the perfect hypnotic illusions of her earlier poems, she relentlessly reflects upon the artificial in fantasy; she ruthlessly criticizes the seduction of illusion, so that the spell of her earlier poetry now reappears, only deformed, unnatural, disturbing. Now the façades appear as façades, artifice as artifice, device as device; all of which brings the disturbance of the earlier poems from the underground painfully into the open air. In this respect, her late poetry can be seen as commenting on, or critiquing, her early poetry’s desire to create ideal fantasy worlds and the seductive pleasures they offer. This later, metapoetic Plath displays brilliance for isolating the machinery of clichés, images, and techniques of everyday discourse of the 50s and early 60s, the post-war mythologies and material practices that shattered and reorganized communal life. All the spaces, public and private, that we put our faith in (churches, hospitals, town centres, homes), all the relationships and institutions wherein we find comfort and stability (family, marriage, friendship, religion, education) become in Plath’s hands a collection of props, devices, and techniques: a bag of tricks. On one level, then, the pleasurable or, at least, mythic codes become unavailable, but on another level, Plath, rather than leaving her readers empty handed, provides them with a toolkit for analysing and transforming the machinery of experience."
Lisa Narbeshuber is Associate Professor of English at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and is no stranger to Plath.
The details: English literary studies monograph series no. 103. 103 pages. Price $15. ISBN 978- 1-55058-385-4.
Updates to the publication date will be made as they become known. This book is listed on Amazon.com.
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