Readings/Assignments for Thursday, January 27, 2005

Please click on the links below (unless otherwise noted) to download, print off, and read the following materials:

Subject Sylvia, by Meghan O'Rourke, from Poetry, via the Poetry Daily website.

Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration, by M. D. Uroff, from Iowa Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1977, pp. 104-15.

The Self in the World: The Social Context of Sylvia Plath's Late Poems, by Pamela J. Annas, from Women's Studies, Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, 1980, pp. 171-83.

"Viciousness in the Kitchen":Sylvia Plath's Domestic Poetry, by Jeannine Dobbs, from Modern Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1977, pp. 11-25.

The Big Strip Tease: Female Bodies and Male Power in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath, by Kathleen Margaret Lant, from Contemporary Literature.

Chapter 13 from The Bell Jar. (Sorry about the upside-down pages. If you print them out, it obviously won't matter, but if you're reading on-screen, you can use the Rotate Page button to turn them around into the correct position.)

Journal Fragments from Sylvia Plath's Unabridged Journals.

Please also read the following poems from Sylvia Plath's The Collected Poems:

"Pursuit," p. 22
"Ode for Ted," p. 29
"The Disquieting Muses," p. 73
"Full Fathom Five," p. 92
"Electra on Azalea Path," p. 117
"The Beekeeper's Daughter," p. 118
"The Colossus," p. 129
"Stillborn," p. 142
"Face Lift," p. 155
"In Plaster," p. 158
"Tulips," p. 160
"Insomniac," p. 163
"The Moon and the Yew Tree," p. 172
"Mirror," p. 173
"Berck-Plage," p. 195
"Poppies in July," p. 203
Bee Poems, 211-219
"Daddy," p. 222
"Fever 103," p. 231
"Cut," p. 235
"Ariel," p. 239
"Poppies in October," p. 240
"Purdah," p. 242
"Lady Lazarus," p. 244
"Edge," p. 272

Please don't forget to post your weekly blog entries no later than Wednesday, January 26, 2005, by midnight. And speaking of which, here is this week's memoir prompt, from The Autobiography Box:

Write down a story that you tell people that didn't really happen the way you usually tell it. So many times we have a good story we embellish with exaggerations, switch events for the sake of timing or humor, all kinds of things. Come on, it's fun! But after you write down the story you tell everybody, tell the same story in its bare-bones, no-frills, true version. Think about the reasons why you twisted the facts around.