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THE POETRY AND PROSE OF SYLVIA PLATH
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“ ‘God’s Lioness’—Sylvia Plath,
Her Prose and Poetry”
by Wendy Martin, in Women’s Studies (1973)
Introduction
For Wendy Martin, Sylvia Plath is an often-misunderstood
writer who, because she courageously explored the taboo
of her own emotions, experience, hostility and despair, “challenged
the traditional literary prioritization of female experience.”
Thus, when writing about Plath’s autobiographical
novel, Martin concludes “The Bell Jar chronicles Esther
Greenwood’s rite de passage from girlhood to womanhood,
and explores such subjects as sexual initiation and childbirth
which are, for the most part, taboo in women’s fi ction.” By
focusing on the way Plath forged unapologetic art, Martin illuminates
the many ways Plath is “a pioneer and pathfi nder.”
f
In recent years, cultists have enshrined Sylvia Plath as a martyr while
critics have denounced her as a shrew. Plath’s devotees maintain
that she was the victim of a sexist society, her suicide a response to
Martin, Wendy. “‘God’s Lioness’—Sylvia Plath, Her Prose and Poetry.” Women’s
Studies 1.2 (1973): 191–98.
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