EN355 Modern & Contemporary American Fiction

From the abstract: "The article presents literary criticism of the book "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. Particular focus is given to Plath's depictions of food in the novel as compared with U.S. women's magazine advertisements of the 1950s. Details on the character Esther's bulimia and its relationship to consumer capitalism are presented. Other topics include femininity, sexuality, and freedom."

From the abstract: "The article presents a literary criticism of Sylvia Plath's novel "The Bell Jar." It discusses the etymology of the word internship, internship of Esther Greenwood, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, and broader conditions which made it possible for women like Plath to enter professions that had long been closed to them. Some consequences of, the author considers, as Plath's inadvertent invention of the internship narrative, a subgenre of the contemporary creative class, are discussed."

From the abstract: Analyzes author Sylvia Plath's novel 'The Bell Jar.' Women characters in the novel; Plath's juxtaposition of New England and the South; Stories on a female character's experiences; Strengths of the novel."

From the abstract: "In this article, the author focuses on the mind and body connections and disability based on the discussion provided in the book "The Bell Jar" written by Sylvia Plath. It is cited that, for Sylvia Plath, writing the disabled body in the book engenders a series Of inmate encounters with the ineffectuality of language. According to some researchers, the nature of disability encompasses a wide category including nuances ranging from congenital and acquired physical differences, mental illness and retardation, chronic and acute illnesses, fatal and progressive diseases, temporary and permanent injuries, and a wide range of bodily characteristics considered disfiguring, such as scars, birthmarks, unusual proportions or obesity, etc. With regard to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, disabilities that are discussed in this article are of temporary nature. It is believed that, the "disabled female body" concept is a phenomenon brought about by a hegemonic, patriarchal system."

From the abstract: "This article examines the way in which Sylvia Plath's novel, "The Bell Jar," interacts with and is informed by 1950s magazines, focusing on 1953 issues of "Mademoiselle" magazine, the year in which Plath's novel takes place. "'The Feeding of Young Women'" considers the way in which Plath uses significant moments of eating throughout her novel to underscore the intense hold that "Mademoiselle's" domestic, behavioral models have on Esther's sense of self. Reading both articles and advertisements in 1953 editions of "Mademoiselle" and looking specifically at passages in "The Bell Jar" that deal with Esther's eating and housekeeping habits, this article asserts that 1950s consumer culture—a culture that encouraged women to navigate beyond the private sphere of the home while limiting those options by simultaneously discouraging that navigation—contributes to Esther's metaphorical starvation."