Plath's Whimsy
Plath's Whimsy
Will May returns us to Plath’s early reception, and finds there a vital but overlooked context for her work: the whimsical. Taking seriously Plath’s fascination with the unthreatening fantasy worlds of children’s stories and their attendant winsome philosophy, May rehabilitates a literary term that has often been used disparagingly by the Movement poets. Instead, he shows us how indebted Plath’s dark comedy and verbal games are to whimsy. With close attention to her children’s stories, May unveils Plath’s cultural conversation with the domestic, the miniature and the absurd, though she herself was disingenuous about her interventions with whimsy. May debunks any notion that Plath’s poetry and stories belong in separate spheres. Neither, he argues, does her children’s writing.
plath, whimsym poetry
74-82
Cambridge University Press
May, Will
f41afa4c-1ccc-4ac6-83b6-9f5d9aad0f67
2019
May, Will
f41afa4c-1ccc-4ac6-83b6-9f5d9aad0f67
May, Will
(2019)
Plath's Whimsy.
In,
Brain, Tracy
(ed.)
Sylvia Plath in Context.
(Literature in Context)
Cambridge.
Cambridge University Press, .
(doi:10.1017/9781108556200.008).
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Book Section
Abstract
Will May returns us to Plath’s early reception, and finds there a vital but overlooked context for her work: the whimsical. Taking seriously Plath’s fascination with the unthreatening fantasy worlds of children’s stories and their attendant winsome philosophy, May rehabilitates a literary term that has often been used disparagingly by the Movement poets. Instead, he shows us how indebted Plath’s dark comedy and verbal games are to whimsy. With close attention to her children’s stories, May unveils Plath’s cultural conversation with the domestic, the miniature and the absurd, though she herself was disingenuous about her interventions with whimsy. May debunks any notion that Plath’s poetry and stories belong in separate spheres. Neither, he argues, does her children’s writing.
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Submitted date: 1 March 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 August 2019
Published date: 2019
Keywords:
plath, whimsym poetry
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Local EPrints ID: 418579
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418579
PURE UUID: 989215c3-cf44-4f8b-933f-d3dfa4a32cb9
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Date deposited: 12 Mar 2018 17:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 18:44
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Editor:
Tracy Brain
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