A Developmental Study of the Art of Sylvia Plath

Abstract

<p>This thesis examines the writings of Sylvia Plath from the point of view of a "schizoid diagnosis". The theories of three British ego-psychologists, W.R.D. Fairbairn, D.W. Winnicott, and H. Gunstrip, provide the psychoanalytic framework. Working within the theory of object relations and by focusing attention on early childhood ego development, they have contributed many remarkable insights into the 'motives' behind hurran activity.</p> <p>The only collection published during the poet's lifetime, The Colossus; the three postumous volumes, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees and Ariel; and the autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, are examined chronologically to reveal the clear development of a schizoid perspective in Sylvia Plath's art. Her writings are shot through with an intense libidinal attachhment to self-destruction, and point to the desperate attempts of a weak ego struggling to be born. In the end the violence of the false, destructive strategies of survival she chose becarre self-directed, and suicide resulted.</p> <p>Sylvia Plath became mythologized with her death. A literary romanticization of suicide characterizes most critical studies on the poet. This thesis takes issue at some length with the influential British author, A. Alvarez, in particular, whose writings on the "extremist poets" have shaped in a most damaging way any critical perspective on Sylvia Plath in the decade following her death.</p>