The Fragmentation of Identity in the Work of Sylvia Plath: The (Im)possibility of Escaping the “Bell Jar”

• Thesis title in Czech: Fragmentace identity v díle Sylvie Plathové: (Ne)možnost úniku ze skleněného zvonu
• Thesis title in English: The Fragmentation of Identity in the Work of Sylvia Plath: The (Im)possibility of Escaping the “Bell Jar”
• Key words: Sylvia Plath|americká literatura|poválečná poezie|identita|rozpad identity|znovuzrození|smrt
• English key words: Sylvia Plath|American literature|post-war poetry|identity|fragmentation of identity|rebirth|death
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Stephan Delbos, M.F.A., Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 22.01.2020
• Date of assignment: 19.02.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 09.03.2020
• Date and time of defence: 08.09.2021 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 16.08.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 08.09.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: doc. Justin Quinn, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Sylvia Plath: The Fragmented Identity, the Broken Individual and Self-Recovery
I decided to dedicate my bachelor’s thesis to the work of Sylvia Plath. Though her work undeniably offers a feminist reading, to label her purely as feminist would be to underestimate her poetic talent and to considerably diminish the meaning that her short, but very interesting life had and the way her work helped shape even the contemporary literary scene. Sylvia Plath never considered herself a feminist but her work is largely influenced by her own personal history and life circumstances. The 1950s and 60s’ America was not an ideal place for a woman to live, let alone raise children in. Plath, both a mother and a wife faced the oppression of the male-dominated society on different levels. Her family life was falling apart and her poetic career stood in the shade of her male contemporaries. Though her poetic and prose work are a fiction, they deal with these issues in great detail. It is precisely this woman- man relationship, the ideals and reality, the deception, sense of entrapment and the inner rage which reflect themselves in her work. What interests me primarily in Plath is the way the speakers in her poems and the main characters of her prose often struggle internally. It is this inner turmoil, its causes and consequences which I would like to explore, mainly working with the notion of identity, its loss, fragmentation and recovery - if there even is a way to recover it in a male competitive environment that does not provide women with the space to achieve their personal fulfilment. I would like to base my analysis on multiple secondary sources, critical works of Plath which have been advised to me earlier in my studies in the essay-writing process, works which I have already encountered myself or which I deliberately chose for this purpose – mainly Susan Bassnett, Betty Friedan, Jacqueline Rose and other critics of Plath’s work.

References

Bibliography:
Bassnett, Susan. Women Writers: Sylvia Plath. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1993.
Bassnett, Susan. Sylvia Plath: An Introduction to the Poetry. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2004.
Brian, Tracy. Sylvia Plath in Context. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Cullen, Mary. “Women, History and Identity”. The Maynooth Review: 65-79. JSTOR.
E. Schwartz, Susan. “Sylvia Plath: A Split in the Mirror”. Indiana University: 55-76, 2011.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, 1963.
Gill, Jo. The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kegan-Gardiner, Judith. “On Female Identity and Writing by Women”. Critical Inquiry: 347-361. JSTOR
Kendall, Tim. Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study. London: Faber & Faber, 2001.
Linden Ward, Blanche. American Women in the 1960s: Changing the Future. University of Virginia, 1993.
Macpherson, Pat. Reflections on the Bell Jar. Routledge, 1991.
McClave, Heather. “Sylvia Plath: Troubled Bones”. New England Review: 447-465, 1980. JSTOR.
Newman, Charles. The Art of Sylvia Plath: A Symposium. London: Faber and Faber, 1970.
Ostriker, Alicia. Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986
Rose, Jacqueline. The Haunting of Sylvia Plath. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Rothenberg, Albert. “Self-Creation and Self-Destruction: The Case of Sylvia Plath”. Feb 2019. Web
Skevington, Suzanne. The Social Identity of Women. SAGE Publications, 1989.
Wagner, Linda W. Critical Essays on Sylvia Plath. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K.Hall & Company, 1984.