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Sylvia Plath Event: Karen V. Kukil on The Bell Jar at 50

Associate Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at Smith College and editor The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Karen V. Kukil, will present a lecture on Sylvia Plath titled The Bell Jar at 50 on Thursday 5 September 2013 at 4 PM in the Browsing Room of the Neilson Library, Smith College. All are welcome. The lecture is free and will certainly enrich one's understanding of the process of creating The Bell Jar and its publication history.


While you are there, you should also check out some of the exhibits ("From Petals to Paper" and "The Bell Jar at 50" and "Sylvia Plath Reads the Wife of Bath") that are closing at the end of the week (8 September), too.
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  1. The Plath Diaries04 September, 2013 09:53

    Are you going, Peter?
    Any chance of a live stream? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter K Steinberg04 September, 2013 10:05

    Hi Maeve,

    Thanks for tweeting this blog post & for your comment. I won't be able to make it, though, to Karen's talk, which is a shame.

    Yours,
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous13 October, 2013 10:54

    Buona sera, excuse me sir, i have 2 questions about The Bell Jar whichi dont seem to find on google or on any book i have(sorry my english im italian) and so i thought id better ask you who is one of the greatest conosciteur of Sylvia Plath, as person and as writer. My first question is if Joan of the novel is based on a real person in Sylvia's life, and if that Marco (the one who tried to rape her)is really existed and happened in Sylvia's life. I was watching yesterday the film "The Bell Jar" with Marilyn Hasset and Julie Harris and there s a lot of Joan's roleplay,more than in the book,and these 2questions came on my mind. Thank you very much if you are so kind to reply to my curiosity. And thank you also for this marvellous site about "our" marvellous Sylvia. Have a nice sunday, Nina.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter K Steinberg13 October, 2013 12:28

    Dear Nina,

    Hi there. Thank you for your comment. Yes, Joan Gilling in The Bell Jar is largely based on a classmate of Plath's at Smith named Jane Anderson. Anderson was also a patient at McLean Hospital when Sylvia Plath was there. Plath manipulated some of the events to suit the narrative of the novel, but the character was based on a real person.

    The character of Marco was also based on a real person called José Antonio La Vias. You can read about him and Plath's experiences with him in Elizabeth Winders Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 which was published earlier this year and in this article by Andrew Wilson, from The Guardian. Winder and Wilson report differing stories about the man and the events. Wilson primarily uses The Bell Jar to reconstruct the actual events and Winder uses interviews with Plath's fellow guest editors.

    The Bell Jar film is just horrible; bares very little resemblance to the book: represents therefore to me an injustice to Plath's famous novel.

    pks

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous13 October, 2013 13:04

    Thank you VERY MUCH for your quick and very exhaustive explanation. I appreciated it. And thank you for suggesting the book which i will surely buy soon on ebay(since it's not sold here in Italy..we only have 3 books by Plath and 2books on/about her here in italian bookstores alas..they hardly know who Sylvia Plath is) and yes, i agree utterly with you, the film was horrible and exaggerated a lot on real facts and i think they depicted Sylvia and her depression in the wrongest way and exaggerating it by showing her like a total insane and crazy woman when actually she was just depressed. And i think also they made the possible to make appear that this Joan was lesbian and that Sylvia was easily attracted to her and to maybe this new experience by letting us see that she easily refused making love with men and be more easily in good (lesbian?)wavelength with women and therefore more in synthony with them because of a more profound affinity female sensibility with each other, to be then easily mistaken with lesbianism which she wasnt. Then we dont know if she was really attracted also to women, we will never know. But who knows.. I think it can be also that her last journal was destroyed or hidden right because there could have be written some uncomfortable truth(for her mother,friends and,most of all,her children). We will never know. Best regards from Italy. Nina

    ReplyDelete

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