The Madwoman Writes Back: Sylvia Plath’s Poetics and Politics in The Bell Jar

Abstract

The present paper follows a close reading of The Bell Jar to establish how Sylvia Plath creates a ‘language of her own’ to express her unique experience of womanhood coupled with mental illness in the post-World War II American landscape. Plath’s personal memoir inevitably becomes a political narrative as it establishes the relationship between patriarchy and psychiatry. Focussing on the centrality of Plath’s unique literary and narrative strategies, the research establishes Plath’s rejection of both patriarchal ideologies and patriarchal language. Further, the research explores the problematic relationship between the societal construction of gender roles and madness as illustrated by Plath through her experiences. The paper aims to ascertain the role of life writing as an agent of social critique and social change.