From Imitation To Self-discovery

Sylvia Plath is one of the most important woman poets in last century. Among the large volume of criticisms on her, she was first dismissed by male critics before her suicidal death and later labeled as feminist and even to an extent to deification by cultists. However, a full-scale investigation of her career and works is necessary for a better and more objective assessment. A close examination evinces that the whole process of her short-lived literary career is the very epitome of the history of women's literary tradition, from imitation of male tradition to open revolt and finally to self-discovery. Instead of simply labeling Plath as feminist, this thesis aims to trace the development of Sylvia Plath as a woman writer with the help of related feminist critical theories and through looking into three of her most important works-Colossus and Other Poems, her autobiographical fiction The Bell Jar, her ground-breaking poetry Ariel -to define her career as a process of three stages, i. e. the imitative feminine, the protesting feminist, and the mature female phase of women's literary tradition.The paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to the author, the work and literature reviews; Chapter Two covers the basic feminist theory on women's literary tradition and the definition of feminine, feminist and female; In Chapter Three the imitative characteristics in Colossus is studied. Chapter Four discusses the feminist stage as reflected in confessional fiction The Bell Jar, In Chapter Five female experience and female creativity are analyzed to define Ariel as the mature female stage- a stage in which the author has achieved her self-discovery. Chapter Six is the conclusion.