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Title: | Elements of existentialism in the works of Sylvia Plath and Margaret Atwood |
Authors: | Farrugia, Karyn |
Keywords: | Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963. Bell jar -- Criticism and interpretation Atwood, Margaret, 1939- - Criticism and Interpretation Existentialism in literature |
Issue Date: | 2019 |
Citation: | Farrugia, K. (2019). Elements of existentialism in the works of Sylvia Plath and Margaret Atwood (Bachelor's dissertation). |
Abstract: | Existentialism is a philosophical theory which emphasises on individual experience, freedom and choice. It originates in the work of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and is grounded on the understanding that individuals define their own meaning in life and try to make rational decisions in spite of existing in a seemingly meaningless universe. By means of this theory, I would like to carry out a comparative study between Sylvia Plath‘s novel The Bell Jar and some of her poems, and Margaret Atwood‘s novel Cat’s Eye and some of this writer‘s poems Esther Greenwood and Elaine Risley, who are the protagonists of the novels respectively, will be the focus of this study as their unfolding sense of self and identity will be analysed. Both protagonists portray a continuous angst which they go through in their personal experiences as they try to transform their selves into the ‗idealised‘ character corresponding to society‘s expectations of them as women. However, both fail to attain this sense of perfection which leads them to an existential crisis which although painful, is also rewarding in terms of the vision gained. Thus, the constant struggle of needing to fulfil these expectations and wanting to be their own authentic selves will be analysed. Since both novels are set in the mid-20th century, they both share the struggle of the female identity in the post WWII era, which will be discussed through the influence of second wave feminists at the time, such as Simone de Beauvoir‘s The Second Sex. What is remarkable about these two authors is that their seemingly confessional style of writing is not just their personal struggle or angst, but it is also the fear that women felt at that time, and which some still feel today. Even though Plath and Atwood are two extremely different authors, their works portray numerous issues of gender that reflect their social environment, such as domesticity, the female body, the woman as other, and marriage. Therefore, through existentialism, this social environment of such gender issues will be analysed to show the struggles an individual goes through due to their gender. |
Description: | B.A.(HONS)ENGLISH |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48407 |
Appears in Collections: | Dissertations - FacArt - 2019 Dissertations - FacArtEng - 2019 |
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19BAENG019.pdf Restricted Access | 931.5 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open Request a copy |
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