great mind is androgynous: A look at the late poetry of Sylvia Plath through Virginia Woolf's theory of the androgynous consciousness

Author

• Shilo R. Blackburn

Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

The female subject in the late poetry of Sylvia Plath experiences a physical and intellectual transformation, as Plath attempts to challenge and redefine the social construction of woman through Virginia Woolf's influence. Plath aspires to achieve a poetic voice that embodies characteristics of both genders simultaneously, an androgynous consciousness by Woolf's account, and one that can speak despite Western culture's imposed inferiority of women writers. Since traditionally masculine language has defined women's social roles through their physical bodies, Plath's aim is to immerse her female subject in the experiences of her corporeal body as a means to transcend her physical existence and symbolically achieve a supreme consciousness unadulterated by gender designs. Through the transportation of the physical, female body, then, Plath believes that her poetic voice can emerge in the form of an androgynous spirit capable of accessing powers of both genders.

Extent

159 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Adviser: Johnnie M. Stover.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2004.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Recommended Citation

Blackburn, Shilo R., "great mind is androgynous: A look at the late poetry of Sylvia Plath through Virginia Woolf's theory of the androgynous consciousness" (2004). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009. 723.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_5/723

Identifier

FADT13147

Format

pdf