Overview

Sylvia Plath is an object of enduring cultural fascination-the troubled patron saint of confessional poetry; a writer whose genius is buried under the weight of her status as the quintessential literary sad girl. A pro-Plath polemic, Loving Sylvia Plath examines these myths in order to dismantle them and asks why, when Plath speaks frankly about her husband's brutality, we refuse to take her at her word. Emily Van Duyne-a superfan and scholar-radically reimagines the last years of Plath's life, confronts her suicide and the construction of her legacy, and offers feminist, interdisciplinary readings of her extraordinary poetry. Drawing from decades of study on Plath and her husband Ted Hughes, the chief architect of Plath's mythology; never-before-seen archival materials; and a nuanced, empathetic understanding of the experience of domestic violence; Van Duyne seeks to undo the silencing of Sylvia Plath and resuscitate her as the hard-working, brilliant writer she was.

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9781324006978

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"""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."" -- Jessica DeFino, Guardian columnist and beauty reporter ""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."" -- Gail Crowther, author of Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz ""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."" -- Kate Manne, author of Unshrinking"

"""To love someone, you must know them. Until this book, audiences have not known Sylvia Plath. With fresh interviews, revisited archival material, feminist theory, and a personal story that parallels Plath's, Emily Van Duyne takes a washcloth to the writer's public image—the mad woman, the sad girl icon—and wipes and wipes away at it to reveal the Plath underneath, 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."" -- Jessica DeFino, Guardian columnist and beauty reporter"

Author Information

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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