Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking - Softcover

Nephie Christodoulides

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9042017724 ISBN 13: 9789042017726

Publisher: Brill | Rodopi, 2005

Synopsis

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking delves deeply into the notion of motherhood in Sylvia Plaths work in order to redeem Plath from the one-dimensional role assigned to her of the suicidal, father-obsessed poet. Written from the theoretical perspective of Julia Kristevas theory of subject formation, the book focuses on Plaths baby poems in which mother figures are seen as subjects-in-process oscillating between authentication and non-authentication in motherhood. Furthermore, since the mother is always a daughter, part of the discussion centers on Plaths daughterhood poetry in which daughter figures are engaged in an endless struggle to release themselves from a suffocating maternal hold and achieve their own linguistic individuation. Finally Plaths works for children, The Bed Book, The-It-Doesnt-Matter Suit, Mrs. Cherrys Kitchen, as well as her fairy tale poems, largely ignored until now, are read as manifestations of the selfs regressive journey to once below a time to grasp an elusive pre-symbolic organization and take signification back to infancy. The book makes extensive use of Plaths drafts, mainly of the Ariel poems, her recycled materials, annotated books from her personal library, published and unpublished material from The Lilly Library Archive, The Mortimer Rare Book Room, and The Ted Hughes Archive in Emory.

About this title

About the Author

Nephie Christodoulides teaches English, Poetry, and Creative Writing at the University of Cyprus.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill | Rodopi
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9042017724
• ISBN 13: 9789042017726
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280