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Memoirs

LOVING SYLVIA PLATH

Emily Van Duyne

A Reclamation

A nuanced, passionate exploration of the life and work of one of the most misunderstood writers of the twentieth century.

Sylvia Plath is an object of enduring cultural fascinationthe troubled patron saint of confessional poetry, a writer whose genius is buried under the weight of her status as the quintessential literary sad girl. Emily Van Duynea superfan and scholarradically reimagines the last years of Plath's life, confronts her suicide and the construction of her legacy. Drawing from decades of study on Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, the chief architect of Plath's mythology; the life and tragic suicide of Assia Wevill, Hughes's mistress; newly available archival materials; and a deep understanding of intimate partner violence, Van Duyne seeks to undo the silencing of Sylvia Plath and resuscitate her as the hardworking, brilliant writer she was. Emily Van Duyne is an associate professor at Stockton University and a 2022 Fulbright Scholar. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, Women's Studies Quarterly, Harvard Review, and American Poetry Review. She lives in New Jersey.

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Book Published 2024-07-09 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Impassioned. Effective in [its] takedown of the literary establishment that closed ranks around Hughes to protect him against feminist pushback from the 1970s on. Compelling and well argued.

Loving Sylvia Plath: A Conversation with Emily Van Duyne Read more...

Reading Oneself? | Auto-Critics and the Sylvia Plath Problem Read more...

[A] deeply researched analysis of how the popular myth of Plath's life, one that subordinates her poetry to her depression and her suicide, was constructed by Hughes and maintained by critics from the time of her death in 1963 to the present.

Loving Sylvia Plath is indeed a reclamation, and one that not only centers, but in many ways, resurrects Plath's own voice to speak her own truth.

This impassioned reassessment of Sylvia Plath's life and work blends feminist theory and biography to challenge various narratives that have dominated criticism of the poet since her suicide. Many of Hughes's misdeeds (burning Plath's journals, altering the manuscript of "Ariel") are well-trod territory, but Van Duyne's approach, in which she shows how certain publishers, critics, and biographers helped maintain some version of Hughes's account, feels fresh and vital.

Van Duyne is a provocative and intriguing writer who understands both the visible and invisible forces that come to play upon women who refuse to cower into silence. She will leave many a female reader thinking about how they present themselves to the world and perhaps encourage them to think how they might do otherwise.

Brilliant, lyrical, and moving, Loving Sylvia Plath is a riveting story of misogynistic abuse, gaslighting, and the way our culture protects treasured male heroes at the cost of female victims. A must-read for any feminist, any lover of literature, and anyone who simply values a gripping story.

[Van Duyne] carefully, almost tenderly, combines research with experience.

[B]old and original. Ms. Van Duyne, a superb reader of both Plath's writing and her biography, identifies key moments in a marriage that was violent from the beginning. Only a critic as steeped in the literature of Sylvia Plath could have produced such an innovative book.

In Loving Sylvia Plath, Emily Van Duyne sets out to radically reimagine the last years of Plath's life and recontextualize her legacy by undoing her silencing and exploring the brilliance of her work. This book is perfect for lovers of poetry and literary history alike.

A Painful, Urgent Reimagining: Emily van Duyne on Writing a New History of Sylvia Plath's Last Years Sarah Viren in Conversation with the Author of "Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation" Read more...

Emily Van Duyne takes a deeper look at Plath and does away with the trappings of her sad-girl personaperpetuated, in many ways, by Plath's husband, the writer Ted Hughesto focus on her accomplishments and the enduring power of her work. This book is part celebration and part repossession, looking at the writer on her own terms instead of through the lens for her that others have created.

This is the best book I have read on Plath.and I have read them all.

A fresh melding of scholarly investigation and personal reflection.

[Loving Sylvia Plath] examines the many myths surrounding the poet before taking them apart, wiping off the grime, and reconstructing a new vision of Plath for the future.

Sylvia Plath's Biography: A Reckoning Finally Begins Emily Van Dyne shows that Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, sought to dominate the legacy of the dead poet by creating a malign mythology in his book, 'Birthday Letters.' Read more...

Emily Van Duyne reveals Plath as she was: the best of her, the worst of her, the parts she hid in plain sight, the parts she made harder to find. I inhaled Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation like (what else?) air.

Van Duyne rejects any notion that Plath was a bad mother or merely a morbid poet. She maintains Plath ought to be remembered as a complicated woman, a formidable writerone who outshined Hughesand almost certainly a victim of domestic abuse.

This disquieting debut from Van Duyne. examines how Ted Hughes's physical and psychological abuse of his wife, Sylvia Plath, shaped her life, work, and legacy. [Loving Sylvia Plath is] an incriminating account exposing the depths of Hughes's cruelty, this is sure to reignite debate in literary circles.