Projects matching your search criteria
The Plath Enigma: tracing the changes in Sylvia Plaths literary work in relation to those that occurred within her own life
We aim to investigate how Sylvia Plaths literary work changes throughout the course of her life, and to derive (through a detailed biographical study of Plath) where her major influences were taken from. We plan to develop upon the consensual belief that her father, Otto Plath, and husband, Ted Hughes, both played major roles in Plaths development as a poet - and to investigate how these two influences eventually mould into one in Plaths pinnacle poem, Daddy.
We also aim to find links between Plaths Ariel and Hughes Birthday Letters, hopefully shedding further light upon the couples relationship and marriage.
We would also like to consider the current literary criticism on Plath and offer our own evaluation in relation to our findings.
Through an analysis of both Plaths and Hughes work we hope to further understand the claims against Hughes made by many feminist critics stating that he was a cruel husband. We would also like to evaluate Plaths feelings towards Hughes in relation to her feelings towards her own father. We shall question whether Hughes was a poor husband or whether Plaths own opinion of him was clouded by her own mental state.
We expect to find particular relevance in Plaths heritage and upbringing along with her early experiences of living in America. Through her journals we hope to find some prerequisite of her later mental breakdown, and additional evidence shall be sought through an analysis of her Letters Home.
We aim to approach this research project with a totally neutral stance and to allow our own findings to influence our opinion of both Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Similarly, our presentation and report will hold the same neutral stance. We also aim to investigate both sides of any debates that may arise, as the current literature on the Plath-Hughes debate is massively divided.
Project Team: Joe White and Katie Watson Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research sylvia plath ted hughes poetry
