Trauma Writing In Sylvia Plath's Confessional Poetry

Sylvia Plath is one of the most important representatives of confessional poetry in the history of American poetry,controversial but renowned for her passionate and creative poems with unusual frankness,pain,horror and madness.This kind of writing personal traumatic experiences in the form of poetry can be seen as a way of trauma writing.Within the framework of trauma theory,this thesis analyzes the trauma writing in Sylvia Plath's confessional poetry,including familial,female and political trauma.Through trauma writing,the poetess reveals her repressive feelings for the sake of self-healing as well as shows her concern for the vulnerable female group and the political issues.The introduction part includes a brief presentation of Plath and confessional poetry,literature review of Plath's poetry at home and abroad,an overview of the trauma theory,and the relationship between trauma writing and confessional poetry.The thesis' s argumentation and organization are also included in this part.Chapter One deals with Plath's familial trauma,which comes from the early death of her father,the stressful relationship with her possessive mother and her husband's infidelity.Through her confessional poetry,Plath shows her infinite loss and pain towards her dead father,releases her hidden resentment towards the mother who she secretly hates but has to love on the surface,as well as vents her anger and desperation towards the unfaithful husband.Plath takes writing familial trauma through confessional poetry as an outlet for her inner pain,hoping to get rid of her parents' and husband's control and to gain spiritual freedom.The second chapter explores the female trauma suffered by Plath and the vulnerable female group,and analyzes the female physical trauma as well as the gender trauma suffered as a wife and a mother.By writing female physical trauma,Plath gives her voice to the vulnerable female body.Besides,through confessional poetry,Plath conveys her complaint and protest against the traditional wifely duties.Lastly,Plath expresses her ambivalence towards motherhood as being both depressing and euphoric,hoping to shake off this motherhood dilemma.Plath writes confessional poems to show her helplessness and resentment towards female trauma so as to call for the rebirth of female subjectivity.Chapter Three deals with the political trauma suffered by both the poet and the collective from the perspectives of historical,postwar,and ecological politics.The repetitive Holocaust imagery in her poetry reflects the lingering shadow of the historical trauma.The images of nuclear bombs reflect the anxiety brought by the nuclear threat and the Cold War.Besides,Plath's poetry also reflects her denouncement of the ecological damage under political influences.The political trauma represented in Plath's confessional poetry shows the poetess' wish to release her political horror,to criticize political unrest and to appeal for a new era of peace and freedom.Plath's trauma writing through confessional poetry not only serves as a therapy for self-healing,but also focuses on the vulnerable female group and political issues,by which,she hopes to attain spiritual freedom,regain female subjectivity and appeal for social stability.