Open Collections

Picui, Charlie

University of British Columbia

This thesis critically examines Ted Hughes' narrative control and authority over the legacies of Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill, exposing the patriarchal structures that enabled the erasure and misconstruction of both women. Drawing on Adrienne Rich's framework of male power, this study investigates the patriarchal power afforded to Hughes over the lives and deaths of his partners in both the public and private sphere. Through an analysis of archival materials, correspondences, and Hughes’ literary works, the paper demonstrates how Hughes' cultural and legal authority allowed for the exploitation of his partners’ labor and the systemic devaluation of their lives. The thesis argues that the public allowances surrounding Hughes’ violences reveal broader societal mechanisms that sustain gendered violence and deny grievability to certain lives. By foregrounding the disposability of Wevill and the misconstruction of Plath, this research challenges the accepted mythologization of the Plath-Hughes story and provides insight into how patriarchal systems sustain male violence and the devaluation of female speakers in literary history and beyond.

Text

2024-10-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89489

Political Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/