A selective bibliography of open access articles on Sylvia Plath, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Authors of Web Pages
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Aird, Eileen. "'Poem for a Birthday' to 'Three Women': Development in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath." Critical Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4, 1979, pp. 63-72
Annas, Pamela J. "The Self in the World: The Social Context of Sylvia Plath's Late Poems." Women's Studies, Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, 1980
Axelrod, Steven. A substantial introduction to Sylvia Plath from the Literary Encyclopedia, 17 September 2003
Axelrod, Steven. A review of Axelrod's Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. First page of article only. Reviewed by Susan Van Dyne in The New England Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 685-688
Bonds, Diane S. "The Separative Self in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar." Women's Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, May, 1990, pp. 49-64
Britzolakis, Christina. A review of Sylvia Plath and the Theatre of Mourning by Christina Britzolakis. (Clarendon Press, 1999). "Emphasizing the rhetoricity and self-reflexivity of Plath's writing, Britzolakis convincingly argues that the texts reflect a sophisticated awareness of audience, literary tradition, and the cultural authority of poetic discourse." Reviewed by Steven Axelrod, in Criticism, Fall, 2000
Bryant, Marsha. "Plath, domesticity, and the art of advertising." Bryant explores the ways in which "Sylvia Plath is not only one of America's major poets, but also literary culture's ultimate commodity." College Literature, Summer 2002
Bucker, Park. Bucker discusses Sylvia Plath's marginal notes in her copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Yemassee, Fall/Winter 1995
Churchwell, Sarah. "Ted Hughes and the corpus of Sylvia Plath." Criticism, Wntr, 1998
Cooper, Catherine. "Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker: Two women writers challenge society's conspiracy against women." London School of Journalism (removed from www.english-literature.org/essays/plath_walker.html)
Dobbs Jeannine. "Viciousness in the Kitchen': Sylvia Plath's Domestic Poetry." Modern Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1977, pp. 11-25
Folsom, Jack. "Death and Rebirth in Sylvia Plath's Berck-Plage." Journal of Modern Literature, XVII:4 (1991), pp. 521-535
Freedman, William. The Monster in Plath's 'Mirror.' Papers on Language and Literature, Vol. 108, No. 5, October, 1993, pp. 152-69
Gerbig, Andrea and Anja Muller-Wood. "Trapped in language: aspects of ambiguity and intertextuality in selected poetry and prose by Sylvia Plath," Style, Spring, 2002
Gill, Jo. "Textual Confessions: Narcissism in Anne Sexton's early poetry." Gill examines the current, generally low critical esteem for confessional poetry. Twentieth Century Literature, Spring, 2004
Hughes, Ted. "On Sylvia Plath." Raritan, Vol. 14, No. 2, Fall, 1994, pp. 1-10
Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. "Sylvia Plath's Psychic Landscapes." English Studies, Vol. 71, No. 6, December, 1990, pp. 509-22
Martin, Wendy. "'God's Lioness'--Sylvia Plath, Her Prose and Poetry." Women's Studies, Vol. 1, 1973
Moramarco, Fred. A lengthy essay has a section on Sylvia Plath among other poets who "would move beyond the impersonal, objectivist confines of modernism and toward a poetry centered in the physical self of the poet who produced it. They participated collectively in the mid-century poetic climate that revolutionized poetry and greatly broadened its possibilities." From Moramarco's book Containing Multitudes
Oates, J. "The Death Throes Of Romanticism" Article on Sylvia Plath's poetry by novelist Oates. Southern Review, 9,3 July, 1973
Oates, J. "Raising Lady Lazarus," a review of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 NY Times, 11/5/2002
Oates, J. The noted novelist reviews Winter Trees, Sylvia Plath's last volume of poetry. Library Journal, November 1, 1972
Oberg, Arthur. "Sylvia Plath: 'Love, Love, My Season.'" In Modern American Lyric (Rutgers Univ. Press, 1978)
Perloff, Marjorie. "Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems: A Review-Essay." Perloff considers twelve poems omitted from Ariel, including "The Rabbit Catcher," "Thalidomide," "Barren Woman," "A Secret," "The Jailer," "The Detective," "The Other," "Magi," "Stopped Dead," "The Courage of Shutting-Up," " Purdah," and "Amnesiac." Resources for American Literary Study, Vol. XI, No. 2, Autumn, 1981
Perloff, Marjorie. "'A Ritual for Being Born Twice': Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar." Contemporary Literature. Vol. 13, No. 4, Autumn, 1972, pp. 507-22
Strangeways, Al. "'The Boot in the Face': The Problem of the Holocaust in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath." Contemporary Literature, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, Fall, 1996, pp. 370-90
Trinidad, David. "'Two Sweet Ladies': Sexton and Plath's Friendship and Mutual Influence." [Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath] American Poetry Review, Nov/Dec 2006
Upton, Lee. "'I / Have a self to recover': the restored Ariel." Literary Review, Summer, 2005
Uroff, M.D. "Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration" in Iowa Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1977, pp. 104-15
Vendler, Helen. Brief comments on "Lady Lazarus" from eleven important critics, including Dr. Vendler, at the Modern American Poetry web site (Univ. of Ill.)
Wagner-Martin, Linda. A review of Linda Wagner-Martin's Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Reviewed by Jeffrey Meyers in the National Review, March 18, 1988
Wagner, Linda. "Plath's 'Ariel': 'Auspicious Gales.'" Concerning Poetry, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1977, pp. 5-7
Wagner, Linda. "Plath's The Bell Jar as Female 'Bildungsroman.'" Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 12, Nos. 1-6, 1986, pp. 55-68
Zivley, Sherry. Sylvia Plath's transformations of modernist paintings. College Literature, Summer 2002
A Univ. of Texas project compares Anne Sexton's "My Friend, My Friend" and Sylvai Plath's "Daddy," demonstrating echoes of Sexton's lines in Plath's poem (removed)
Sylvia Plath section at Modern American Poetry (Univ. of Ill.)includes excerpts from reputable critical articles on various aspects of Plath's work and life
Introduction to Sylvia Plath by Linda Wagner-Martin, from Heath handbooks
"Jane and Sylvia." Poet Ruth Fainlight reflects on her personal relationships with author Jane Bowles in Tangiers in the 1960's and with Sylvia Plath. In Crossroads (Poetry Society of America)
"The Mad Poets Society." An article about McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, "once America's most literary mental institution," where Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Anne Sexton spent time, in The Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2001) by Beam, Alex (removed from The Atlantic Monthly)
A biographical introduction to Sylvia Plath from the Books and Writers site, Kuusankoski Public Library, Finland
A NY Times feature page on Sylvia Plath contains links to original Times reviews and articles on her
Cult Classics: 3: The Bell Jar Independent (London), Apr 29, 2005 by Christina Patterson
Tales of the City: The fatal attraction of Sylvia Plath, Independent (London), January, 2004 by Walsh, John
Dying for melodrama: why does Sylvia Plath still seduce the adolescent psyche? Psychology Today, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Quart, Alissa
Shots in the dark: are the stories of the 20th century's most risk-taking women artists the movie's new dramas? Interview, Oct, 2003 by Fuller, Graham
Beyond The Bell Jar Chicago Sun-Times, Sep 4, 2003 by Laurie Levy
Biographically-slanted article on Sylvia Plath and her journals in Salon.com, May 30, 2000
An intro to Plath from the Random House web site by Ernie Hilbert
Brief biography of Sylvia Plath from the Academy of American Poets
A succinct summary of modern American poetry discusses Plath's importance, from the Academy of American Poets site
A web site maintained by Anja Beckmann, a Sylvia Plath fan in Germany, contains links to many scholarly articles (indexed again here, with thanks), along with student essays, a biography, and more
The Sylvia Plath Forum contains a discussion group along with an extensive list of links to newspaper articles about Plath, reviews of books about Plath, and more
main page | 20th century poetry | 20th century authors, alphabetical | 19th century authors
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