Emotion and Physicality in Sylvia Plath’s Late Poems

Abstract

The present chapter examines representations of affect and emotion in Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” and “The Rabbit Catcher.” One area of fuzziness addressed here is the conceptual distinction between affect and emotion in affect studies. Affect as a preconscious experience is contrasted here with emotion conceived as socially coded and conscious phenomenon. Another fuzzy territory in terms of methodology is the relationship between discourse studies and the affective turn, with affect theorists turning away from representational practices. The present chapter argues that emotion is fundamentally social and forms part of discursive practices in society. Moreover, the textual analysis of poems requires an acknowledgement of the validity of representation. In particular, three types of discourse and the emotions they engender are considered, opposed to which the speaker’s affects emerge as counterpoints: the medical, the religious and the sexual discourse. While discourse is applied here in the sense used by cultural theorists, the notion of affect is approached through Spinozist and Deleuzian theories. The first part of the chapter theorises the difference between affect and emotion and discusses the relevance of discourse studies to representations of affect. The second and third parts discuss each of the poems, applying Deleuze’s affect theory and textual analysis. The chapter aims at distinguishing affect from emotion clearly through the close readings of the two poems, applying discourse analysis methods in combination with affect theories in order to highlight the importance of the literary representations of affects.