“Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman”: la figura y el ethos autoral de Sylvia Plath

Abstract

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) is an American author associated with the school of confessional poetry who, as a consequence of her tumultuous and public life, as well as her sudden death, has been often read first from the perspective of who she was in life and the facts that surround the-flesh-and-bone person behind the texts. Because this generates several and sometimes polemic issues when analyzing her work, as it sometimes reduces the analysis to mere factual verification, in this article I propose the study of her authorial figure to offer other possibilities for reading and analyzing her poetry. Another aim of this article is to explore the potential that this perspective might have for women’s poetry, specifically for poetry that deals with intimacy and autofiction, as is the case with confessional poetry. In addition, it is undeniable that the impact a writer has on their readers is also a consequence of their authorial figure: their pictures, their public appearances, and even what can be extricated from the texts themselves, which makes readers feel closer to the author. Therefore, this article reviews the following concepts: internal authorial figure, external authorial figure, and ethos, as they relate to literary reception. It also delineates the historical notions of author and writer from a feminist perspective, taking into account that these roles have been “designed” for male use. Finally, it analyzes particular aspects of “Lady Lazarus” to negotiate some of the tensions between text/fiction and authorship/factuality, proposing a different —and fairer— interpretation of Plath’s poetry.