“저 통합하는 정신, 저 형체를 만드는 힘”: 실비아 플라스의 시적 고백과 여성적 표현

“That Synthesizing Spirit, That ‘Shaping’ Force”: Sylvia Plath’s Poetic Confessionalism and Female Expressiveness.

This paper explores Plath’s poetic confessionalism by focusing upon her female expressiveness and poetic techniques that interrogate the gendered binary. While presented as personal, the metaphors of pregnancy and motherhood, and floral imagery in her poems disrupt the symbolic idealizations of archetypal feminity. As I will argue, confessionalism represents a troubled feature in Plath’s work that we repeatedly feel called upon to examine. Rather than seeking a real Plath brought about by the public exposure of her life, my primary focus will be upon the way in which Plath posits poetry as means by which to challenge conventional assumptions about gender, literary tradition, and metaphors. These aspects of her poems will be explored with particular reference to Dowson’s elaboration of Pollard’s notion of a new confessionalism, allowing for both critical and poetic processes. Of particular interest is how Plath’s poetic confessionalism through her skilful treatment of confessional elements enables a refreshing female aesthetic.