Anuario de Letras Modernas

Lady Lazarus: resucitaciones de la obra y la figura de Sylvia Plath

Rocío Saucedo Dimas — 2024-12-11

“The big strip tease”: Identity and Trauma in Dismemberment as Seen in Sylvia Plath

María José Martínez Delfín — 2024-12-11

Confessional poetry draws a thin line between the poetic voice and author. As a genre, it can be used as a medium of introspection, for self-recognition, or as a cathartic and therapeutic experience. Sylvia Plath’s seemingly intense autobiographical work functions in this liminal space where her concise verses allow a glimpse into the author’s own experience. “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” contain specific instances of violence where the narrative self seeks to make sense of personal trauma by means of biblical and Holocaust related metaphors. In both poems, the body appears in a state of dismemberment, cataloged into parts and painfully broken to emphasize nonconformity in the search for identity. The brutalized treatment of the body evokes processes of dissociation, according to Jacques Lacan’s theory of the “fragmented body,” resembling how Primo Levi treated the trauma of dehumanization in his narrative concerning life within concentration camps. Therefore, the use of a foreign historical tragedy in Plath’s two poems acts as a general device for intimate expression. The narrative self transforms into an object by borrowing the communal experience of the most immediate historical event, that of the Holocaust, to capture the author’s individual concerns (such as her anxiety towards nuclear war and a difficult relationship with repressive masculinity). In “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy”, interweaving mental and physical hurt with bodily pain is a common thread providing coherence to Plath’s dislocated sensibility, both as an enhancer of trauma or as an element of contemplation and liberation. Understanding the above, this article aims to analyze the use of problematic imagery—described as impersonal historic references—for the author’s expression of the body’s experience in both poems; thus, this text puts the possible limits of the semi-autobiographical element in Sylvia Plath’s confessional work to the test.

“We found ourselves reduced to I”: Affective Protest and Self-representation in Sylvia Plath's “The Rabbit Catcher”

Sara Estrada Zúñiga — 2024-12-11

Since its first use in 1959, confessional poetry, a term used to describe poetry of a biographical nature and emotional rawness, has provoked diverse reactions and rejection from different schools of thought. On the one hand, formalist studies deny the possibility of making an analysis under the confessional logic because it would be incurring in the intentional fallacy. Feminist studies, on the other hand, have problematized the uncritical use of the term, since there is a tendency to think that confessional writing is not serious literature, but only scribbles in women’s intimate diaries. Thus, due to its connotation and mostly pejorative use, a fraction of this field of studies is reluctant to use the term and has sought to discourage such readings, since they demean the work of women writers. However, today, the confessional label continues to be used to evaluate and read, within and outside the academy, the works of authors such as Sylvia Plath. In this research, I will address Sylvia Plath’s poem “The Rabbit Catcher” (1962), which was recovered by Frieda Hughes, the author's daughter, in Ariel: the Restored Edition after being removed by Ted Hughes, Frieda Hughes’ father, in his posthumously published edition of Ariel. Drawing on the biographical facts known about Plath and the proposals of Andrea Muriel López and Gabriela García Hubard, which belong to affective turn, I will analyze how Plath’s self-representation manifests itself in this poem with the purpose of reflecting on the relevance of the confessional term, and how it informs the readings. This, in order to argue that Plath’s case is fertile ground to bridge the gap between the alleged objectivity of the intrinsic analysis of a text and the emotionality found inside and outside of it.

“Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman”: Sylvia Plath’s Authorial Figure and Ethos

Andrea Muriel López — 2024-12-11

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) is an American author associated with the school of confessional poetry who, as a consequence of her tumultuous and public life, as well as her sudden death, has been often read first from the perspective of who she was in life and the facts that surround the-flesh-and-bone person behind the texts. Because this generates several and sometimes polemic issues when analyzing her work, as it sometimes reduces the analysis to mere factual verification, in this article I propose the study of her authorial figure to offer other possibilities for reading and analyzing her poetry. Another aim of this article is to explore the potential that this perspective might have for women’s poetry, specifically for poetry that deals with intimacy and autofiction, as is the case with confessional poetry. In addition, it is undeniable that the impact a writer has on their readers is also a consequence of their authorial figure: their pictures, their public appearances, and even what can be extricated from the texts themselves, which makes readers feel closer to the author. Therefore, this article reviews the following concepts: internal authorial figure, external authorial figure, and ethos, as they relate to literary reception. It also delineates the historical notions of author and writer from a feminist perspective, taking into account that these roles have been “designed” for male use. Finally, it analyzes particular aspects of “Lady Lazarus” to negotiate some of the tensions between text/fiction and authorship/factuality, proposing a different —and fairer— interpretation of Plath’s poetry.

“Take off my death again”: Fragmentation and the Becoming of Lady Lazarus in Sylvia Plath and Jennifer Rahim

Odette de Siena Cortés London — 2024-12-11

Contemplating the idea of continuity through fragmentation allows us to question how connections between different pieces produced by two female authors from diverse contexts within the wide spectrum of English literature take shape, bringing to light the fallacy of a direct and linear conjunction, while proposing less direct but more enriching liaisons. Furthermore, the fragmented quality of this way of thinking frees figures that once might have been considered as a closed unit to introduce diversity in the form of multicultural discourses as part of an ongoing dialogue. Such is the case of Lady Lazarus, seen as a character-theme that allows a cross-cultural dialogue between “Lady Lazarus” (1965) by Sylvia Plath and “Lady Lazarus in the Sun” (2008) by Jennifer Rahim. In these texts, two versions of the same character gain opacity through a fragmentation that has been built in a constant state of becoming, which allows the figure to be introduced into new realities. Therefore, this article seeks to explore the way in which both poets undergo complex negotiations where identity is composed through their poetic voice, Lady Lazarus, and other voices and stories through a fragmented body which is in a constant state of becoming. In this exchange, fragmentation acquires the characteristics of a two-way street where the character-theme constructs itself, paradoxically, through fragmentation, while its presence deconstructs dissonant materialities that triggered the death/resurgence cycle that characterizes Lady Lazarus. In this sense, this article will address fragments in becoming as a complex process in the construction of a multiple and subversive identity found in poetry written by women.

“Questions without answer”: Clairvoyance and Identity Crisis in Sylvia Plath’s Work

Pablo Hurtado Viramontes — 2024-12-11

In studies about Sylvia Plath’s work, the poet’s contact with esoteric and magical practices has been taken as a mere biographical fact; however, the implications derived from these practices on Plath’s thematic and formal choices have been ignored and, instead, her relationship with esotericism has been mobilized as one of the many characteristics of this author’s controversial and mystified biography. This article proposes a critical view of the author’s approach to three particular practices related to clairvoyance: Tarot, the Ouija board, and necromancy. Through this analysis, this text offers a focused examination of the author’s poetic, epistolary, and personal texts that manifest a link between these topics as well as Plath’s preoccupation with identities in crisis. Likewise, this article drafts a map of the author’s exploration of these esoteric concepts, tools and practices in order to address their reach and relevance in Plath’s poetic imagery. In terms of the theoretical resources used for this examination, the notion of dramatic monologue poem, proposed by Susan Bassnett, is implemented here to explore Plath’s poetry beyond its biographical-confessional dimension. An overarching vision of Plath’s multiple ways of using different genres and forms is, likewise, sought to broaden the panorama of the inner connections present throughout her literary corpus.

Heteronormativity as a Tool for Psychiatric Rehabilitation in The Bell Jar

Alejandra Escutia Angulo — 2024-12-11

The novel The Bell Jar, by American writer Sylvia Plath, focuses on a specific period of the life of the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, in which she finds herself submerged in a depression that makes her unable to enjoy her internship in New York. Placed within the context of the Cold War, the novel shows not only the social attitudes regarding the position of women in society in the post-war period but also the reactions towards the apparently inevitable advancement of communism, with the execution of the Rosenbergs in the electric chair as part of the first sentence of the story. Being unable to pick one of the possible options available to her, Esther is thus alienated from the norm that was established for women at the time. This causes her to have a mental health crisis for which she is institutionalised, and receives electroshock therapy as part of her treatment. The objective of this article is to show how it is possible to identify the use of electricity as punishment for the disruption of normativity, as well as shine a light on the way Esther’s interactions with other female characters can be interpreted as a lesbian interest that must be discarded in order to allow her to have a “happy” and “fulfilled” life under the precepts of American society in the mid-twentieth century.

“Cruel Pleasures”: A Gothic Reading of the Body and the Space in La Philosophie dans le boudoir by Marquis de Sade

Alejandro de las Fuentes Zerón — 2024-12-11

In La Philosophie dans le boudoir, Sade draws a portrait of the violence and horror of the postrevolutionary French society. In it, the boudoir becomes a representation of the world, a microcosm where the contradictions of the human condition are explored, and the hypocrisy of the illustrated values is revealed. Although Sade’s work does not belong to the gothic tradition or to horror literature, his portrayal of themes, like the relationship between body and space, shares several similarities with classical gothic literature in English. The aim of this article is, therefore, to analyze the relationship between the body of the characters of the novel and the boudoir, understood as a reconfiguration of the traditional gothic space, to show that La Philosophie dans le boudoir can be read from the optic of the gothic. This paper will show how Sade’s novel, whose characteristics are related to the construction of space and the representation of bodily excess, reflects the transgression of the dominant classes. Thanks to these elements, the novel is able to provide a glimpse into the horror that hides behind the moral institutions of the French society of its time, as it defies concepts such as education, civility, and family.

The Speculation of the Secret: Secondary, Complementary and Apocryphal Sources of “El idioma analítico de John Wilkins” by Jorge Luis Borges

Salvador Calva Carrasco — 2024-12-11

“El idioma analítico de John Wilkins,” by Jorge Luis Borges, addresses the issue of a universal language, based on the analysis of An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language by Wilkins. However, the essayist does not have access to the original source, so he uses others to compensate for the absence of the main one to write the essay. In total, “El idioma analítico de John Wilkins” has twenty references; this article investigates, analyzes, and comments on these sources. For this purpose, this paper begins with a personal classification of sources (secondary, complementary and apocryphal) to describe their function and show the way in which they constitute the essay. In the absence of Wilkins’ text, the essayist indicates that he will consult four books, which I call secondary sources, but later, adds a dozen complementary. Finally, apocryphal sources stand out from the rest. Despite their apparent “false” nature, they speculate on the secret order of things, unlike the secondary and complementary sources, which have an illustrative or contrasting function. This article also shows how the essayist takes examples, passages, information, and ideas from various sources, regardless of their origin or nature, as long as they are relevant to the purpose of the text.

Memory and Hermeneutics: Remembrance as an Act of Reading in Claudio Magris’s “Esterno giorno - Val Rosandra”

Michelle Brener Mizrahi — 2024-12-11

This paper centers on the relationship between memory and hermeneutics in Claudio Magris’s “Esterno giorno - Val Rosandra”, a story about the protagonist's efforts to remember his past from a series of mediated representations of his youth. The article departs from the aesthetics of reception to posit that, in the story, remembrance functions as an act of reading insofar as these mediated memories need to be interpreted, actualized, and inserted in the hermeneutic circle. In other words, memory becomes legible. At the same time, the story's structure has an effect on the reader's concretization processes since, in “Esterno giorno”, the empty spaces behave like silences. These particularities indicate that the process of concretization needs this network of representations and intradiegetic mediations, which presents a significant variation from how the act of reading is normally understood. This article puts forth that this understanding of the relationship between memory and hermeneutics raises some questions in the context of reception theory. That is, by seeing himself inserted in the protagonist's hermeneutic circle, the reader is decentralized, which causes, not so much a dismissal of the theoretical framework, as an opening towards new paths of literary interpretation.