Author(s)

Shanni Liu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ College of Foreign Studies, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, 410006, China

Corresponding Author

Shanni Liu

ABSTRACT

As a laureate of the Pulitzer Prize, Sylvia Plath is often posthumously characterized as a poet whose life and work were tragically cut short, unveiling an intricate tapestry of themes reflective of her personal struggles. Notably, among these themes, the specter of loneliness emerges as a profound undercurrent permeating both her biography and literary corpus. This paper endeavors to dissect the nuanced manifestations of loneliness within Plath's oeuvre, delineating its evolution from a mere emotional state to a complex literary motif intertwined with broader cultural and philosophical contexts. Drawing upon a meticulous analysis of Plath's epistolary exchanges and poetic compositions, including seminal works such as The Unabridged Journal of Sylvia Plath, Ariel, Crossing the Water, The Colossus, this study unearths the centrality of loneliness as a driving force behind her creative impulse. Beyond a superficial exploration of emotional desolation, Plath's writings reveal a deliberate engagement with the existential condition of solitude, refracted through the prism of her literary imagination. Through a synthesis of textual evidence and critical interpretation, this paper illuminates the ways in which Plath's strategic invocation of loneliness serves as a potent catalyst for poetic innovation, inviting readers to confront the complexities of human isolation and the quest for transcendence.

KEYWORDS

Sylvia Plath; Loneliness; Confessional Writing

CITE THIS PAPER

Shanni Liu, How loneliness functions as the core drive in the confessional writing of Sylvia Plath. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 195-199. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070328.

REFERENCES

[1] Alberti F B. A biography of loneliness: The history of an emotion [M]. Oxford University Press, USA, 2019.
[2] Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom. New York: Avon, 1968.
[3] Jo Gill, The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath. London: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
[4] Sylvia Plath, The Journals of Sylvia Plath, ed. Ted Hughes and Frances McCullough. New York: Harper&Anchor, 2000.
[5] Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. 
[6] Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath, ed. Ted Hughes. New York: Harper&Anchor, 1981.

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