SYLVIA PLATH: FURTHER READING

Bibliography

Tabor, Stephen. Sylvia Plath: An Analytical Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Meckler Publishing, 1987, 268 p.

A helpful bibliography of essential works by and about Plath.

Biographies

Alexander, Paul. Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath, New York: Viking, 1991, 402 p.

Hayman, Ronald. The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath, Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group, 1991, 235 p.

A biography of Plath considered by critics to be empathetic and thorough.

Malcolm, Janet. The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, New York: A. A. Knopf, 1994, 207 p.

Highly regarded psychoanalytic study of Plath's life and work that examines the shortfalls and conflicts involved in any biographical endeavor.

Middlebrook, Diane. Her Husband: Hughes and Plath—A Marriage. New York: Viking, 2003, 361 p.

Provides an assessment of the partnership between Ted Hughes and Plath, asserting that the strong creative impulses within both poets resulted in a dynamic and powerful combination.

Stevenson, Anne. Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath, London: Viking, 1989, 413 p.

A comprehensive account of Plath's life and literary career.

Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Biography, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, 282 p.

Biography of Plath providing access to previously unseen journals and letters.

Criticism

Alexander, Paul, ed. Ariel Ascending: Writings about Sylvia Plath, New York: Harper and Row, 1985, 217 p.

A collection of criticism on Plath's life and writing, including essays by Helen Vendler, Alicia Ostriker, Joyce Carol Oates, Rosellen Brown, and others.

Axelrod, Stephen Gould. Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words, Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, 257 p.

Provides criticism through the means of "a biography of the imagination."

Bentley, Paul. "'Hitler's Familiar Spirits': Negative Dialectics in Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' and Ted Hughes's 'Hawk Roosting'." Critical Survey 12, no. 3 (2000): 27-38.

Addresses Plath's use of Holocaust imagery in "Daddy" and compares the poem to Hughes's "Hawk Roosting," another poem that is often interpreted as a commentary on events in World War II.

Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath, Method and Madness, New York: Seabury Press, 1976, 388 p.

A critical and biographical study of Plath's writings and her life.

Curley, Maureen. "Plath's 'Lady Lazarus'." Explicator 59, no. 4 (summer 2001): 213-14.

Maintains that "Lady Lazarus" serves as a poetic commentary on the difficulties faced by female artists and also contends that the poem plays upon a second biblical character named Lazarus in addition to the well-known figure that Jesus returned to life.

Dahlke, Laura Johnson. "Plath's 'Lady Lazarus'." Explicator 60, no. 4 (summer 2002): 50-2.

Asserts that the speaker's conflict in "Lady Lazarus" with the Herr Doktor character represents a struggle againstmale dominance that ultimately ends in defeat, despite the defiant closing lines of the poem.

Hedley, Jane. "Sylvia Plath's Ekphrastic Poetry." Raritan 20, no. 4 (spring 2001): 37-73.

Focuses on Plath's poems that concern visual works of art.

Kendall, Tim. Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, 235 p.

Book-length study of Plath that emphasizes her writing rather than the biographical details of her life.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "The Death Throes of Romanticism." Southern Review, 9, no. 3 (summer 1973): 501-22.

Identifies Plath as part of the Romantic tradition in literature, seeing her poetry as a representation of outmoded ideas that identify the human condition as one of isolated competition.

Rose, Jacqueline. The Haunting of Sylvia Plath. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992, 288 p.

Psychoanalytic study examining Plath's life and work, focusing on feminism in relation to her writing, among other topics.

Van Dyne, Susan R. Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993, 206 p.

A feminist examination of many of the poems in Ariel, focusing on the processes of their writing and revision.

Vendler, Helen. "Sylvia Plath: Reconstructing the Colossus." In Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath, pp. 115-54. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Examines the poem "Edge" in an effort to defend Plath's work against charges that it lacked vision and suffered from contradictions.

Wagner, Erica. Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2001, 256 p.

Critical study presenting analysis of Plath's poetry and life through a study of Ted Hughes' poetry.

Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999, 171 p.

Examines the process by which Plath developed herself as a writer, including analysis of her early reading and writing habits.

Wagner, Linda W. "Plath's The Bell Jar as Female Bildungsroman." Women's Studies 12, no. 1 (1986): 55-68.

Maintains that The Bell Jar fits into the tradition of youthful coming-of-age novels, though it also stands apart because the protagonist is female.

Zivley, Sherry Lutz. "Sylvia Plath's Transformations of Modern Paintings." College Literature 29, no. 3 (summer 2002): 35-56.

Analyzes Plath's poems that were inspired by paintings by Henri Rosseau, Paul Klee, and others.

OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:

Additional coverage Plath's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: American Writers Retrospective Supplement, Vol. 2; American Writers Supplement, Vol. 1; Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 13; Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Biography and Resources, Vol. 3; Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, 1941-1968; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 19-20; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 34, 101; Contemporary Authors Permanent Series, Vol. 2; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14, 17, 50, 51, 62, 111; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 5, 6, 152; DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: British Edition; DISCovering Authors: Canadian Edition; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-studied Authors and Poets; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Ed. 3; Exploring Novels; Exploring Poetry; Feminist Writers; Literature and Its Times, Vol. 4; Literature Resource Center; Major 20th-Century Writers, Eds. 1, 2; Modern American Women Writers; Novels for Students, Vol. 1; Poetry Criticism, Vols. 1, 37; Poetry for Students, Vols. 1, 15; Poets: American and British; Reference Guide to Young Adult Writers; Something about the Author, Vol. 96; Twayne's United States Authors; World Literature Criticism; and World Poets.