This essay addresses the topic of “temporalities of mod- ernism” through the example of Sylvia Plath, whose only novel The Bell Jar presents a significant continuity with some of the major features of modernist style. Published with the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, on January 14th, 1963, a few months before her death, the novel reveals remarkable convergences with modernism, hence positing the question of whether/when such a movement has really come to an end, considering its persistence in later and contemporary novels. Indeed, the rendering of the charac- ters’ consciousness (in particular of the protagonist Esther Greenwood) along with the challenging presence of a nar- rator―whose reliability needs to be proved and reassessed as the novel unfolds―, and the way realist details are ab- sorbed into the characters’ inner perception, establish a di- rect and strong connection to modernism.
Modernist Plath
Annalisa Volpone
2022
Abstract
This essay addresses the topic of “temporalities of mod- ernism” through the example of Sylvia Plath, whose only novel The Bell Jar presents a significant continuity with some of the major features of modernist style. Published with the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, on January 14th, 1963, a few months before her death, the novel reveals remarkable convergences with modernism, hence positing the question of whether/when such a movement has really come to an end, considering its persistence in later and contemporary novels. Indeed, the rendering of the charac- ters’ consciousness (in particular of the protagonist Esther Greenwood) along with the challenging presence of a nar- rator―whose reliability needs to be proved and reassessed as the novel unfolds―, and the way realist details are ab- sorbed into the characters’ inner perception, establish a di- rect and strong connection to modernism.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
