Interest in Sylvia Plath continues to grow, as does the mythic status of her relationship with Ted Hughes, but Plath is a poet of enduring power in her own right. This book explores the many layers of her often unreliable and complex representations and the difficult relationship between the reader and her texts. The volume evaluates the historical, familial and cultural sources which Plath drew upon for material: from family photographs, letters and personal history to contemporary literary and cinematic holocaust texts. It examines Plath's creative processes: what she does with materials ranging from Romantic paintings to women's magazine fiction, how she transforms these in multiple drafts and the tools she uses to do this, including her use of colour. Finally the book investigates specific instances when Plath herself becomes the subject matter for other artists, writers, film makers and biographers.

"I'm a riddle in nine syllables...." "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath Focuses on the writings of Sylvia Plath to reveal her cultural and political concerns - a thoroughly new approach away from biographical readings of her work. Plath's unpublished letters are examined, as well as hand-written drafts of poems, typescripts of "The Bell Jar" and annotated copies of the books that most influenced her. Provides new close readings of stories and poems that have seldom been talked about, or have been discussed in mainly biographical terms. Despite being widely read and studied, the writing of Sylvia Plath has been relatively neglected in relation to the attention given to her life and what drove her to suicide. This exciting new study, "The Other Sylvia Plath," introduces completely new approaches to her writing, taking the away from the familiar concentration to reveal that Plath as a writer who was concerned with a much wider range of important cultural and political topics. Tracy Brain provides new close readings of stories and poems that have seldom been talked about, or have been discussed in mainly biographical terms. Unlike most of the existing literary criticism, "The Other Sylvia Plath" shifts the focus away from biographical readings and encompasses the full range of Plath's poetry, prose, journals and letters using a variety of critical methods. It argues that there is another Sylvia Plath, a writer who was much more interested in a world beyond her own skin than critics have allowed. Plath's unpublished letters are examined, as well as hand-written drafts of poems, typescripts of "The Bell Jar" and annotated copies of the books that most influenced her. The book also explores theways in which Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath drafted their poems together and wrote poems in answer to each other. It is also the first volume to look at Plath's home-made art scrapbooks and to analyse the significance of the cover designs and marketing of Plath's work.

Tracy Brain is at University of Stirling.

Despite being widely studied on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses the writing of Sylvia Plath has been relatively neglected in relation to the attention given to her life and what drove her to suicide. Tracy Brain aims to remedy this by introducing completely new approaches to Plath's writing, taking the studies away from the familiar concentration to reveal that Plath as a writer was concerned with a much wider range of important cultural and political topics. Unlike most of the existing literary criticism it shifts the focus away from biographical readings and encompasses the full range of Plath's poetry, prose, journals and letters using a variety of critical methods.

Sylvia Plath in Context brings together an exciting combination of established and emerging thinkers from a range of disciplines. The book reveals Plath's responses to the writers she reads, her interventions in the literary techniques and forms she encounters, and the wide range of cultural, personal, artistic, political, historical and geographical influences that shaped her work. Many of these essays confront the specific challenges for reading Sylvia Plath today. Others evaluate her legacy to the writers who followed her. Reaching well beyond any simple equation in which biographical cause results in literary effect, all of them argue for a body of work that emerges from Plath's deep involvement in the world she inhabits. Situating Plath's writing within a wide frame of references that reach beyond any single notion of self, this book will be a vital resource for students, scholars, instructors and researchers of Sylvia Plath.