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Англия в прозе Сильвии Плат: опыт имагологического анализа
The name of Sylvia Plath, an America writer and poet, is often associated with England. A significant part of her life was connected with this country.
In Russia, Plath’s oeuvre remains relatively unexplored. In addition to several articles dedicated to certain aspects of the poet's work, it is worth mentioning E. K. Gerasimova's thesis "The Artistic World of Poetry and Prose of Sylvia Plath: the End of the 50s – the Beginning of the 60s" ( 2007), which became the first attempt of a systematic analysis of the writer's work. Sylvia Plath's reception of English culture, literature and everyday life was never studied separately, while scholars limited their interest to the relationships between Plath with English literature in the person of Ted Hughes.
The object of this article is Plath’s prose, including short stories, journals, as well as letters addressed mainly to her mother and brother. The study of this topic is complicated by the fact that, if we trust the testimony of Plath’s relatives and friends, her can not be always considered a fully reliable narrator. There are many examples when she, consciously or unconsciously, being carried away by the process of artistic re-creation of the world, misleads the reader. The evidence contained in the journal entries may be diametrically opposite to the impressions contained in Sylvia Plath's letters.
Life in England, getting familiar with the British, their customs and traditions have left their mark on Plath’s creativity, images and even the language that the poet uses to create her complex and multi-layered texts. Since 1956, “English” has become inseparable from both biography and creativity of the author. The image of England is formed on the basis of personal impressions, stereotypes that existed at that time, literary sources and new media, among which a special place was occupied by cinema and advertising. This study is relevant, as it not only sheds light on some aspects of the work of Sylvia Plath, but also helps to understand what England was in the eyes of the Americans in the 50s – 60s of the previous century. Despite the non-standard perception of the world, Plath, nevertheless, projects in her oeuvre many stereotypes that existed at that time, some of which have not lost their relevance even today.
The image of England in Plath’s works is always ambivalent. On the one hand, the concept “Englishness” includes such associations as English literature, Shakespeare, English poetry. On the other hand, the country always bewildered Plath by its conservatism, snobbery, stiffness and cold. All those shades of “Englishness” are traced in Sylvia Plath’s prose, having become an integral part of her ego-text.