A popular form of writing nowadays is one that involves reexamining the lives of people, often members of marginalized groups, who have otherwise been flattened or short-changed by history.
How has society鈥檚 assumptions or prejudices informed how a person is remembered, many authors are asking, and what information is available to us that may tell a more complete story?
These are the questions Emily Van Duyne, an associate professor at Stockton University, asks in 鈥淟oving A Reclamation.鈥�
In the wake of Plath鈥檚 death by suicide, her husband and fellow writer Ted Hughes constructed a narrative that he was the 鈥渟tabilizing factor鈥� in his wife鈥檚 life but that, in the end, even he couldn鈥檛 save her. But Van Duyne rejects any notion that Plath was a bad mother or merely a morbid poet. She maintains Plath ought to be remembered as a complicated woman, a formidable writer 鈥� one who outshined Hughes 鈥� and almost certainly a victim of domestic abuse.
This book is not, for the most part, a hermeneutic study or close reading of Plath鈥檚 writings. Rather, Van Duyne鈥檚 source material for this reclaimed portrait of Plath are her circumstances.
Van Duyne seeks to subvert Hughes鈥� narrative of Plath鈥檚 life and what drove her to end it. In the wake of #MeToo and cultural conversations about believing women, Van Duyne argues Plath鈥檚 story ought to be given a fresh look.
Those wanting a primer on reading Plath or a comprehensive biography should look elsewhere to the plethora of extant literature on the enigmatic literary giant. But 鈥淟oving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation鈥� should be seen as supplementary material for those seeking to better understand the circumstances surrounding her final years.
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AP book reviews:
Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press
