Reimagining Femininity: Sylvia Plath’s Poetic Odyssey into the Realms of Gender Identity, Fluidity and Intersectionality

Abstract

The poetic oeuvre of Sylvia Plath stands witness to her deep-seated inquiry into gender identity and fluidity and intersectionality that she houses within herself to also offer gender identity as a site of rebellion against the structural society of patriarchy which tasks a feminine form with femininity as inherent. Drawing on feminist theory, psychoanalysis and new critical practice, the paper rides Slath's wave of poetry to a place where we dare to see what it might mean to be woman. The paper would through a critical reading, endeavour to untangle the mystique of her poetry through a few select poems, such as, “Mushrooms”, “Medusa”, “Lesbos”, “The Applicant” and “Ariel” in which Plath may be seen engaging with gender, politics of body and intersectionality. In addition, the paper was going to examine how Plath's poetic imagery and diction troubled traditional gender binaries which could provide suggestions for new ways of existing and expressing the sex. Within the matrices of gender, sexuality, power and resistance, then, her poetry reconfigures itself as a space of both subversion and metamorphosis that disrupts the passive and passive-aggressive spectacles of womanhood and feminine beauty. The paper ultimately would examine how Plath’s poetic discourse sheds light onto the intersection between varying forms of sexual oppression, gender discrimination and identity formation. In conclusion, the paper concludes that Plath poetry surpasses the limitation of gender roles and Patriarchy and speaks of the unity and multi-dimensionality of gender identity