Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender and American Culture) [Paperback]

Susan R. Van Dyne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 1994 | Series: Gender and American Culture

Susan Van Dyne's reading of twenty-five of Sylvia Plath's Ariel poems considers three contexts: Plath's journal entries from 1957 to 1959 (especially as they reveal her conflicts over what it meant to be a middle-class wife and mother and an aspiring writer in 1950s America); the interpretive strategies of feminist theory; and Plath's multiple revisions of the poems.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

To examine Plath's twin goals of becoming a famous poet and a perfect mother, Van Dyne (English and women's studies, Smith) juxtaposes three kinds of texts here: Plath's private writings, feminist theoretical strategies, and, for the first time, the manuscripts of the "Ariel" poems themselves. More might have been made of a fourth type of text, i.e., the "cultural myths and family scripts" of her time that required women to emphasize the maternal role over others (an example of which is a condescending address given by Adlai Stevenson to the poet's graduating class at Smith). But this book's main points are clearly and forcefully argued: that both poems and babies require "struggle, pain, endless labor, and... fears of monstrous offspring" and that, in the end, Plath ran out of the resources necessary to produce both. Often maligned as a self-indulgent confessional poet, Plath is here retrieved as a passionate theorist. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong literary collections.
- David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Revising Life is a major contribution to Plath scholarship.

New England Quarterly

[A] book that is meticulously researched, clearly and gracefully written, carefully argued, and beautifully presented.

New England Quarterly

Plath scholars will welcome intriguing accounts of the poet's composition and revising processes.

American Literature

[An] important, provocative, and often brilliant book.

Steven Gould Axelrod, author of Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words

This is criticism at its best, melding a quantity of factual information with Van Dyne's superb readings.

Linda Wagner-Martin, author of Sylvia Plath: A Biography

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 12, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080784487X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807844878
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,270,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revising Life: A Short Review, January 10, 2008

By 

M. szymanski (chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender and American Culture) (Paperback)

This critical study is a concise and intelligent look at the cultural
influences that shaped both the personal life, and artistic life of
Sylvia Plath. Van Dyne does a good job of using Plath's poetry to
show the reader how Plath was conflicted by the limited viewpoint of society towards women in the forties and fifties. Van Dyne shows
how Plath fought those stereotypes of women to find her own self and
voice. It's a good book, one of the better critical studies of Plath.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Study of Plath, September 11, 2009

By 

blibberinghumdinger (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender and American Culture) (Paperback)

I've read everything, and I mean everything, on Plath, and this is a wonderful study. Sympathetic, very complex without being difficult, clear, and well-written. I learned a lot. I like how she stayed focused on the poems. She extracts a few basic central themes, and really makes her points. It's a wonderfully empathetic feminist study.