LITPA 300 courses are advanced seminars in which students will critically read and assess different genres, period and traditions of literature or the performing arts through multiple lenses. Frequent reading and writing assignments will be made.Sylvia Plath is one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th Century—and one of the most misunderstood and maligned.  In this class, as well as exploring Plath’s writing, we will examine her cultural reception and how that has changed over time—and how her husband, poet Ted Hughes’ framing of her work has impacted its reception.  We will look at her early formalist poetry, her later adaptation of a more confessional mode, and then her final brilliant experiments in Ariel.  We’ll look at the use of sound, myth, personal material, and social issues in her work—and at her literary influences.  We’ll also look at Plath’s prose—her short stories and The Bell Jar—as well as her journals.  We’ll pay particular attention to how she both embodies mid-1950s American/English concepts of gender and rebelled against them.

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