Rivalry, Betrayal, and Exclusion: Traumatic Reenactments and Female Peer Relations in Sylvia Plath’s Short Fiction
Although previously the critical interest in Sylvia Plath’s output revolved around her most famous poetic and prose pieces, the beginning of the twenty-first century saw a rise of a new branch of Plath criticism which aims at a more comprehensive perspective on the variety of her artistic and intell...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas, |
|---|---|
| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
European journal of American studies
2022
|
| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Özet: | Although previously the critical interest in Sylvia Plath’s output revolved around her most famous poetic and prose pieces, the beginning of the twenty-first century saw a rise of a new branch of Plath criticism which aims at a more comprehensive perspective on the variety of her artistic and intellectual work. Adopting such an approach, this article examines six of Plath’s short stories with a special emphasis put on female peer relations presented therein. As the analysis reveals, although the stories in question are concerned with various life periods, all of them still follow similar narrative formula which always intertwines the (sub)plots of female peer relations with the themes of rivalry, betrayal and exclusion. Importantly, when read through the prism of contemporary trauma theory, such portrayals of female relations may be interpreted as a series of traumatic reenactments or failed attempts at integrating the original traumatic scenario which introduced the concept of a female as a threatening other. |
|---|