%0 Thesis %1 RalphPordzik2014 %A Ralph Pordzik, Prof. Dr. %D 2014 %K Literatura Literature MTM16 Poesía Poetry SylviaPlath %P 17 %T Reading “Lady Lazarus” Approaching the poetry of Sylvia Plath %X Sylvia Plath's poetry has been a widely discussed subject ever since her death and the posthumous release of her final collection of poems, Ariel. As Linda Wagner-Martin notes: Ted Hughes' releasing of his version of the collection, started the “cult of Plath.” (WagnerMartin, 1999: X) This is a most fitting statement, as her poetry is often read through a biographical approach, trying to find the person Sylvia Plath in her work. It is a culturally constructed search for a unique author, trying to force an imaginary person upon the text. One of the most susceptible poems is “Lady Lazarus”, part of Ariel and the famous “October Poems.” However, a fully biographical reading of the poetry will not do justice to the multiple layers of meaning to be found in these texts. The following paper will make an attempt in reading Sylvia Plath's “Lady Lazarus” under the aspect of “the author.” The assumption is that while the poem invites a biographical reading due to its theme of suicide and depression, it ultimately tries to accomplish the very opposite task, actively defying the construction of a genuine author. By utilizing Roland Barthes ideas in his influential essay “Death of the Author” as the theoretical basis, the narrative structure of the poem will be analyzed to understand how exactly the author as a real existence is negated and instead deconstructed. Emphasis will be put on the Holocaust imagery Plath makes repeated use of. Furthermore, an analysis of the spaces represented in “Lady Lazarus” through Michel Foucault's “On Other Spaces” will extend the motif of the imaginary author onto a spatial level. The last chapter will negotiate in how far Sylvia Plath's poem can be read as “Camp” when being analyzed under the theoretical idea of the “death of the author.” Beforehand, the following chapter will make a short attempt in reading the poem biographically, trying to find Sylvia Plath in the figure of Lady Lazarus. It will give insight into why such a reading might be easy to accomplish, eventually though fails to capture the various levels of meaning and inconsistency. As Susan Gubar notes: “Plath's poetry broods upon łdots the contamination of the very idea of the genuine.” (Gubar, 2007: 181).

@phdthesis{RalphPordzik2014, abstract = {Sylvia Plath's poetry has been a widely discussed subject ever since her death and the posthumous release of her final collection of poems, Ariel. As Linda Wagner-Martin notes: Ted Hughes' releasing of his version of the collection, started the “cult of Plath.” (WagnerMartin, 1999: X) This is a most fitting statement, as her poetry is often read through a biographical approach, trying to find the person Sylvia Plath in her work. It is a culturally constructed search for a unique author, trying to force an imaginary person upon the text. One of the most susceptible poems is “Lady Lazarus”, part of Ariel and the famous “October Poems.” However, a fully biographical reading of the poetry will not do justice to the multiple layers of meaning to be found in these texts. The following paper will make an attempt in reading Sylvia Plath's “Lady Lazarus” under the aspect of “the author.” The assumption is that while the poem invites a biographical reading due to its theme of suicide and depression, it ultimately tries to accomplish the very opposite task, actively defying the construction of a genuine author. By utilizing Roland Barthes ideas in his influential essay “Death of the Author” as the theoretical basis, the narrative structure of the poem will be analyzed to understand how exactly the author as a real existence is negated and instead deconstructed. Emphasis will be put on the Holocaust imagery Plath makes repeated use of. Furthermore, an analysis of the spaces represented in “Lady Lazarus” through Michel Foucault's “On Other Spaces” will extend the motif of the imaginary author onto a spatial level. The last chapter will negotiate in how far Sylvia Plath's poem can be read as “Camp” when being analyzed under the theoretical idea of the “death of the author.” Beforehand, the following chapter will make a short attempt in reading the poem biographically, trying to find Sylvia Plath in the figure of Lady Lazarus. It will give insight into why such a reading might be easy to accomplish, eventually though fails to capture the various levels of meaning and inconsistency. As Susan Gubar notes: “Plath's poetry broods upon łdots the contamination of the very idea of the genuine.” (Gubar, 2007: 181).}, added-at = {2017-01-16T17:14:59.000+0100}, author = {Ralph Pordzik, Prof. Dr.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2e844ae14546232668e9518360db1e31b/nereaev}, file = {:C$\backslash$:/Users/Nerea/Desktop/TRABAJO ASP TEORICOS/Reading{\_}Lady{\_}Lazarus{\_}-{\_}Approaching{\_}the{\_}P.pdf:pdf}, interhash = {240986e3c902fe49b53dd115d73f51ae}, intrahash = {e844ae14546232668e9518360db1e31b}, keywords = {Literatura Literature MTM16 Poesía Poetry SylviaPlath}, mendeley-tags = {Literatura,Literature,MTM16,Poes{\'{i}}a,Poetry,SylviaPlath}, pages = 17, school = {Universität Würzburg}, timestamp = {2017-01-17T19:22:34.000+0100}, title = {Reading “Lady Lazarus” Approaching the poetry of Sylvia Plath}, type = {Publication}, year = 2014 }