ABSTRACT
Sylvia Plath provides a particularly vivid example of the ways in which literary texts have tended to be interpreted in the light of the biography of their author. The voyeuristic speculation surrounding her failed marriage to Ted Hughes, her intermittently unstable mental state, and the final period of feverish and brilliant artistic productivity, which ended in her suicide at the age of 30 have prompted many readers to approach her work with the grim smile of dramatic irony. From the apparently elevated position of hindsight, many critics have judged her work to be “about” anguish and despair, offering documentary evidence of the author’s tragic trajectory towards suicide. This type of approach places a highly restrictive frame on Plath’s work, limiting its appeal and eliding its wit, energy, subtlety, and stylistic inventiveness. However, the late 1980s and early 19908 have seen the emergence of a number of critical studies that offer positive and creative departures from these traditional critical techniques and emphases.
