
THE DEAD BELL (PLATINUM SUMMER) Alissa Bennett on Sylvia Plath, Suffocating Fandom, and Breathing as Metaphor
Ever since the early 1970s, when feminist activist and poet Robin Morgan published “Arraignment,” a poem written in response to Silvia Plath’s suicide, the predominantly female fan culture surrounding Plath proliferates, producing countless merchandising items, blog entries, and scholarly essays. While some are “Seeking the One True Plath,” others claim to have discovered “The Other Sylvia Plath.” Alissa Bennett – who pursues her longstanding interest in the premature deaths of famous personalities and their legacies for her column “Fiction/Nonfiction” – is searching for Sylvia too. But instead of reading her own personal Plath into archival photos and poems, Bennett poses questions on subjecthood, ponders what becomes of it when one is made into the object of mythmaking, and how we can truly know a person, whether they are celebrities or grandmothers, dead or alive.
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