Sylvia Plath’s Poetry and Abjection

This study examines Sylvia Plath's poetry through Julia Kristeva's theories of the abject and abjection, providing a new interpretive framework that transcends conventional biographical or feminist readings. It argues that Plath's distinctive poetic qualities—intense imagery, syntactic disruption, fragmented narratives, and pervasive anxiety—reflect the dynamic tension between the abject and abjection. This paper analyzes four poems —&quotMetaphor,&quot &quotCut,&quot &quotThe Disquieting Muses,&quot and &quotMedusa&quot—to demonstrate how Plath's work embodies the abject's threatening presence and abjection's defensive response. The abject in Plath's poetry manifests itself as the female body, particularly the maternal body, thus destabilizing the subject's identity. The abjection appears through linguistic intensity, disrupted syntax, and disturbing imagery, driving creative force. By examining Plath's work through Kristeva's lens, this study reveals how her poetry explores subjectivity's unstable boundaries and demonstrates poetry's capacity to articulate psychic disruption, transferring existential anxiety to the reader through powerful affective expression.