Anne Sexton (1928-1974)

A selective list of literary criticism for Anne Sexton, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Pages

main page | 20th-century literature | 20th-century poetry | 20th-century women writers | confessional poetry

introduction

"Anne Sexton." Includes sections on Anne Sexton's Life; A Sexton Chronology; Sexton's Career, by Diana Hume George; About Anne Sexton; On "Her Kind"; On "The Truth the Dead Know"; On "One for My Dame"; A Sexton Bibliography. Modern American Poetry (U of Illinois).

"Anne Sexton." Biography, bibliography, selected poems. Poetry Foundation.

"Anne Sexton." An introduction to Anne Sexton. Also "A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry." Academy of American Poets.

"Anne Sexton." Poetry Archive. Directors, Andrew Motion & Richard Carrington.

Remembering Anne Sexton, by Erica Jong. NY Times, 27 October, 1974 (registration required).

(removed) Porter, Roy. From Madness: a brief history (Oxford UP). Being a mad genius is no longer "in," according to the author. New Statesman, 25 Feb. 2002.

(removed) Beam, Alex. "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).

(removed) A U of Texas project compares Sexton's "My Friend, My Friend" and Plath's "Daddy," demonstrating striking echoes of Sexton's lines in Plath's poem (removed).

literary criticism

Alkalay-Gut, Karen. "The dream life of Ms. Dog: "Anne Sexton's revolutionary use of pop culture." College Literature, 2005

(removed) Dugan, Alan. Drunken Memories of Anne Sexton, "The first and last time I met my ex-lover Anne Sexton was at a protest poetry reading against some anti-constitutional war in Asia." American Poetry Review, May/Jun 1999.

Gill, Jo. "Textual Confessions: Narcissism in Anne Sexton's early poetry." An extended article on confessional poetry. Gill contends "the implication that contemporary avant-garde poetry is 'radical' while the confessional poetry that preceded it is reactionary and conservative itself merits scrutiny." Twentieth Century Literature, Spring 2004.

Middlebrook, Diane. Diane Middlebrook's web page on her biography of Anne Sexton, includes letters and reviews.

Salvio, Paula M.; and Madeleine R. Grumet. Anne Sexton: Teacher of Weird Abundance (SUNY Press 2007). Preview at Google Books.

Teaching & Research

Discussion questions for teachers and readers of Anne Sexton's poetry, from Heath guides.

Anne Sexton's papers at the Univ. of Texas Austin.

main page | 20th-century literature | 20th-century poetry | 20th-century women writers | confessional poetry

1998-2010 by Jan Pridmore