![]() ![]() “Plath does something akin to Picasso in his early Cubist drawings,” Clark writes, “.a calculated, radical gesture born of impatience with a tradition that had run dry. Just two years before her death, Plath jettisoned worn-out forms for a bolder register, embracing internal rhyme, expressive line breaks, and autobiography: The circus animals of her imagination were liberated from their cages, pacing and stalking the masculinist canon. Clark also recasts Hughes as both muse and monster, a generous reader with a cruel streak.īut Red Comet is fundamentally a work of criticism, exploring the technical leaps in Ariel, the breakthrough collection that made Plath’s name. Here, The Bell Jar is understood not as a teen cult work (“When we see a female character reading The Bell Jar in a movie, we know she will make trouble”) but as a declaration of independence from postwar America. ![]() Suicide attempts take a backseat to fiercely focused genius. On this week’s episode of Working, Rumaan Alam spoke with writer and poetry professor Heather Clark about her new Sylvia Plath biography. ![]() From her youth in suburban Boston to her eminent academic accomplishments and stormy relationship with fellow poet Ted Hughes, Red Comet illuminates Plath’s life in unprecedented detail. ![]()
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