THE SYMBOLISM OF RED FLOWERS IN THE POETRY OF SYLVIA PLATH
Keywords:
red flower, poppy, tulip, Persephone, myth
Abstract
This paper analyses motifs formed around the symbolism of a red flower, from an early poem written in 1956, Two sisters of Persephone, then the cycle of the poems A Poem for My Birthday and Tulips, in which a red flower is linked to the oral and maternal images, and finally, in the poems written during the last year of Sylvia Plath’s life – Poppies in July, Poppies in October, Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the significance of mythological and literary tradition in Sylvia Plath’s poetic language and point to the most persistant motifs in her poetry illustrated using the example of a red flower.
References
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Bassnett, Susan. 2005. Sylvia Plath: An Introduction to the Poetry. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Birckle, Carmen. 1996. Women’s Stories of the Looking Glass: Autobiographical Reflections and Self-Representations in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Britzolakis, Christina. 2001. Sylvia Plath and the Theatre of Mourning. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Broe, Mary Lynn. 1980. Protean Poetic: the poetry of Sylvia Plath. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Görey, Özlem. 2000. Three Sibyls on a Tripod: Revisionary Mythmaking in the Poetry of H. D., Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich. University of Leicester. Neobjavljena doktorska teza.
Grevs, Robert. 2012. Grčki mitovi. Beograd: Admiral books.
Hughes, Ted. 2003. Collected Poems, ed. Paul Keegan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Lawrence, D. H. 1964. The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence, London: Heinemann: 307–308.
Plat, Silvija. 2010. Rani odlazak. Beograd: Paidea.
Plat, Silvija. 2010a. Stakleno zvono. Beograd: Paideia.
Plath, Sylvia. 1981. The Collected Poems, ed. Ted Hughes. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Plath, Sylvia. 2000. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. New York: Anchor Books.
Rosenblatt, Jon. 1979. “Sylvia Plath: The Drama of Initiation”. Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 25, No. 1, 21–36.
Stojanović, Dragana. 2015. Interpretacije mapiranja ženskog tela u tekstualnim prostorima umetnosti i kulture. Beograd: Fakultet za medije i komunikacije/ Orion Art.
Wurst, Gayle. 1990. “I’ve boarded the train there’s no getting off: The Body as Metaphor in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath”. Revue française d’etudes américaines, No. 44: 22–35.
