Sylvia Plath A Very Short Introduction

Sylvia Plath is one of the most influential and iconic American writers of the twentieth century, popular with academic and general audiences alike. Plath, who died at age 30, left behind a body of work that changed the direction of modern poetry, and buttressed second-wave feminism. Her poetry and fiction have been especially important to generations of women readers who have found a powerful reflection of their own emotions and experiences in Plath's art.

In this incisive introduction, leading Plath scholar Heather Clark explores the intersections between Plath's life and work while discussing key themes in Plath's poetry collections The Colossus and Ariel, her novel The Bell Jar, and short stories “Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams,” “The Wishing Box,” and “Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom.” Clark summarizes the ways in which Plath has been pathologized, and reframes her work within the broader context of poetic confessionalism, biography, feminism, politics, and mental illness.

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Heather Clark, Professor of Contemporary Poetry, University of Huddersfield

Heather Clark is Professor of Poetry at the University of Huddersfield and the author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, winner of the Slightly Foxed Prize for Best First Biography and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the LA Times Book Prize; The Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association; and The Ulster Renaissance: Poetry in Belfast, 1962-1972, which won the Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature and the Donald Murphy Prize for Best First Book from the American Conference for Irish Studies.