The Abject in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath
Keywords:
Confessional Poetry, Abjection, Psychoanalysis, Transformative GrammarAbstract
A recent trend in studying the poetry of Sylvia Plath is to dissociate confessional poetry from autobiographical element and the subject of the writer. It claims that the work of any confessional writer has the least elements of simulation as the artist is in a complete control of her work. Nevertheless, the current study proposes that subjective traits like abjection and negativity produced an influential transformative dialect. The individual became the representative of female as a whole. Reading the text in the light of Kristeva’s abjection theory, presents the formation of an ego. This ego is formed from the identification with abject like blood, death, dead body and suicide. This is a descriptive study employing psychoanalysis approach proposed by Julia Kristeva. The sample is purposive nine poems are selected for the study. According to Kristeva this psychological state of abjection is produced when one experienced a lack of recognition or misrecognition in the eyes of others. This realization creates a feeling of cast down or cast aside. This consideration not only supports a direct link to the real life of the poetess but also focuses on poetic language and creative process which is stimulated by instinctual drives. The subject of the poetess is significant as it carries aesthetic identity and this subject is rooted in real life.
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