Joyce Carol Oates on Sylvia Plath

[dd...@bellsouth.net]

Oates wrote an essay calling Sylvia Plath "the last of the Romantics" and saying Plath was in thrall to a "kind of masculine, combative 'I-ness'" that originated in the Renaissance.

Is Oates right about Plath?

[Max Alberts]

It would seem that Sylvia Plath was a genius and that her gifts were certainly recognized as such when she was in college. She was an enormously ambitious, competitive person and if THE BELL JAR offers any clues, Plath enjoyed taking big risks. The Humanities haven't changed much since the Renaissance and, sadly,  neither has western patriarchy. Visit any English Department anywhere in the western hemisphere and that will instantly become clear to you. The "combative I-nesss" of which Oates writes is built into the system. Plath mastered that system, until she didn't. There's much more to write on this subject, but to answer your immediate question, yes, Oates is correct.

On Monday, May 18, 2020, 07:28:02 AM CDT, dd...@bellsouth.net <dd...@bellsouth.net> wrote:

Oates wrote an essay calling Sylvia Plath "the last of the Romantics" and saying Plath was in thrall to a "kind of masculine, combative 'I-ness'" that originated in the Renaissance.

Is Oates right about Plath?

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