LEADER 02650oam 2200397z- 450 001 9910158997703321 005 20230906203136.0 010 $a9781613762523 010 $a1613762526 035 $a(CKB)3710000001018630 035 $a(BIP)034315721 035 $a(VLeBooks)9781613762523 035 $a(Perlego)3288097 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000001018630 100 $a20220314d2013 uy | 101 0 $aeng 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 00$aSylvia Plath and the Mythology of Women Readers 210 $cUniversity of Massachusetts Press 215 $a1 online resource (216 p.) $cill 311 08$a9781558498969 311 08$a1558498966 330 8 $aDepicted in popular films, television series, novels, poems, and countless media reports, Sylvia Plath's women readers have become nearly as legendary as Plath herself, in large part because the depictions are seldom kind. If one is to believe the narrative told by literary and popular culture, Plath's primary audience is a body of young, misguided women who uncritically even pathologically consume Plath's writing with no awareness of how they harm the author's reputation in the process.Janet Badia investigates the evolution of this narrative, tracing its origins, exposing the gaps and elisions that have defined it, and identifying it as a bullying mythology whose roots lie in a long history of ungenerous, if not outright misogynistic, rhetoric about women readers that has gathered new energy from the backlash against contemporary feminism.More than just an expose? of our cultural biases against women readers, Badia's research also reveals how this mythology has shaped the production, reception, and evaluation of Plath's body of writing, affecting everything from the Hughes family's management of Plath's writings to the direction of Plath scholarship today. Badia discusses a wide range of texts and issues whose significance has gone largely unnoticed, including the many book reviews that have been written about Plath's publications; films and television shows that depict young Plath readers; editorials and fan tributes written about Plath; and Ted and (daughter) Frieda Hughes's writings about Plath's estate and audience. 610 $aPlath, sylvia, 1932-1963 610 $aFeminism in literature 610 $aWomen 610 $aLiterary criticism 610 $aSocial science 676 $a811/.54 700 $aBadia$b Janet$01190831 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910158997703321 996 $aSylvia Plath and the mythology of women readers$92756926 997 $aUNINA