About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherLSU

ISBN-100807170569

ISBN-139780807170564

eBay Product ID (ePID)20038435924

Product Key Features

Number of Pages232 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameReclaiming Assia Wevill : Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Literary Imagination

SubjectGender Studies, Modern / 20th Century, General, Poetry

Publication Year2019

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Family & Relationships, Social Science

AuthorJulie Goodspeed-Chadwick

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight15.5 Oz

Item Length8.7 in

Item Width5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2019-007987

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsJulie Goodspeed-Chadwick has written the first scholarly study of Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes's mistress and Sylvia Plath's rival. Assia, who committed suicide in 1969, played an important role in the lives and writing of Plath and Hughes and was herself a gifted translator. But until now she has not been given her critical due. Drawing upon new sources, Goodspeed-Chadwick rejects the mythic version of Assia as a femme fatale, or, as Hughes once called her, a 'Lillith of abortions.' She asks why so many readers and critics have accepted and perpetuated Plath and Hughes's disturbing representations of Assia, and what the Assia myth might teach us about our own biases regarding women artists and 'muses.' Throughout this original study, Goodspeed-Chadwick restores Assia's dignity and personhood while offering new approaches to Plath and Hughes's work. This is an important and necessary recovery of a woman artist caught in the crossfire of one of history's most turbulent literary marriages., Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick has written the first scholarly study of Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes?s mistress and Sylvia Plath?s rival. Assia, who committed suicide in 1969, played an important role in the lives and writing of Plath and Hughes and was herself a gifted translator. But until now she has not been given her critical due. Drawing upon new sources, Goodspeed-Chadwick rejects the mythic version of Assia as a femme fatale, or, as Hughes once called her, a 'Lillith of abortions.' She asks why so many readers and critics have accepted and perpetuated Plath and Hughes?s disturbing representations of Assia, and what the Assia myth might teach us about our own biases regarding women artists and 'muses.' Throughout this original study, Goodspeed-Chadwick restores Assia?s dignity and personhood while offering new approaches to Plath and Hughes?s work. This is an important and necessary recovery of a woman artist caught in the crossfire of one of history?s most turbulent literary marriages.

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal811/.54

SynopsisReclaiming Assia Wevill: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Literary Imagination reconsiders cultural representations of Assia Wevill (1927?1969), according her a more significant position than a femme fatale or scapegoat for marital discord and suicide in the lives and works of two major twentieth-century poets. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick?s innovative study combines feminist recovery work with discussions of the power and gendered dynamics that shape literary history. She focuses on how Wevill figures into poems by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, showing that they often portrayed her in harsh, conflicted, even demeaning terms. Their representations of Wevill established condemnatory narratives that were perpetuated by subsequent critics and biographers and in works of popular culture. In Plath?s literary treatments, Goodspeed-Chadwick locates depictions of both desirable and undesirable femininity, conveyed in images of female bodies as beautiful but barren or as vehicles for dangerous, destructive acts. By contrast, Hughes?s portrayals illustrate the role Wevill occupied in his life as muse and abject object. His late work Capriccio constitutes a sustained meditation on trauma, in which Hughes confronts Wevill?s suicide and her killing of their daughter, Shura. Goodspeed-Chadwick also analyzes Wevill?s self-representations by examining artifacts that she authored or on which she collaborated. Finally, she discusses portrayals of Wevill in recent works of literature, film, and television. In the end, Goodspeed-Chadwick shows that Wevill remains an object of both fascination and anger, as she was for Plath, and a figure of attraction and repulsion, as she was for Hughes. Reclaiming Assia Wevill reconsiders its subject?s tragic life and lasting impact in regard to perceived gender roles and notions of femininity, power dynamics in heterosexual relationships, and the ways in which psychological traumas impact life, art, and literary imagination., Reclaiming Assia Wevill: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Literary Imagination reconsiders cultural representations of Assia Wevill (1927-1969), according her a more significant position than a femme fatale or scapegoat for marital discord and suicide in the lives and works of two major twentieth-century poets. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick's innovative study combines feminist recovery work with discussions of the power and gendered dynamics that shape literary history. She focuses on how Wevill figures into poems by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, showing that they often portrayed her in harsh, conflicted, even demeaning terms. Their representations of Wevill established condemnatory narratives that were perpetuated by subsequent critics and biographers and in works of popular culture. In Plath's literary treatments, Goodspeed-Chadwick locates depictions of both desirable and undesirable femininity, conveyed in images of female bodies as beautiful but barren or as vehicles for dangerous, destructive acts. By contrast, Hughes's portrayals illustrate the role Wevill occupied in his life as muse and abject object. His late work Capriccio constitutes a sustained meditation on trauma, in which Hughes confronts Wevill's suicide and her killing of their daughter, Shura. Goodspeed-Chadwick also analyzes Wevill's self-representations by examining artifacts that she authored or on which she collaborated. Finally, she discusses portrayals of Wevill in recent works of literature, film, and television. In the end, Goodspeed-Chadwick shows that Wevill remains an object of both fascination and anger, as she was for Plath, and a figure of attraction and repulsion, as she was for Hughes. Reclaiming Assia Wevill reconsiders its subject's tragic life and lasting impact in regard to perceived gender roles and notions of femininity, power dynamics in heterosexual relationships, and the ways in which psychological traumas impact life, art, and literary imagination.

LC Classification NumberPR6073.E78Z54 2019