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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1998)
rpoppiV ! y4na4olfa. "The Land East" ^ Traditional 1 Greek & Indian Food I r / s s / s Lunch Monday through Saturday Dinner 7 Nights a Week 992 Willamette Gugene. Or 97401 343-9661 V. Clearing Out? Sell your books & magazines for Cash Buyers at two locations .Smith Family I BookstoriU House of records NEW % USED CDS IPS WES BUY SELL TRADE m e im CHOCOLATE °0&t& ® Truffles Y01M 17th and Willamette 5th and Pearl Valley River Center ( Bertelsen and Stewart ^ Poetry: Plath became feminist icon ■ Continued from Page 5 standing with critics worse. He was supposedly giving Plath to the world, but her poetry was heavily edited, not to mention the fact that Plath’s "crazy-suicidal” identity had solidified under his editing guise. “The whole 'giving Plath to the world’ seemed to be manipulated and deceptive. He took out nearly a dozen poems and added a dozen,” Ford said. "Her book, she always said, began with the word 'love' and ended with the word ‘spring,’ and it was a narrative of the dog matic soul ending with the resur rection, the promise of spring. “He made a new narrative ... Miss America and a Nobel Prize winning poet at the same time.” Because many feminist readers and critics have tried to make her into an icon, they blame Hughes for her death. However, they should be more concerned with his interest in cashing in on his dead wife’s name. Although he claims “Birthday Letters” is an outpouring of years of torment, he is still refuses to grant interviews. Yet friends, editors and critics are applauding the book for its emotional vulnerability and sense of impending disaster. There is definitely an aspect of disaster: Hughes’ editing. No matter what Hughes plans to do in the future, the fact remains that he altered Plath’s poetic art and reputation forever. And contrary to Hughes’ support ers, this book in no way “unmasks” their relationship. Major Jackson, a graduate student in English, sees the book as damage control. “England has not produced a significant poet since [W.H.] Au den, save for [Philip] Larkin,” he said. “So the publication of‘Letters’ is a means of inserting a mediocre English poet into the consciousness of the world of poetry.” Ford is also skeptical about his motivations. “If we’re supposed to believe that this is not self-interest, that this is not the ’old’ Hughes managing everything, there ought so that the book he published doesn’t bear enough relation to Plath’s 'Ariel' to warrant our attention anymore except as an oddity and aberration of editing.” to be a book about his second wife who killed herself and their daughter m the same manner.” In an eerie imitation of Plath, his second wife, Assia, Hughes control over Hath s literary work has caused femi nist scholars to portray her as an icon. Plath’s role is compli cated: Her work and editing are a prime example of how women have been sup pressed in art and writing; i however, she doesn’t fit the mold of the “traditional” feminist icon. Her ambi- L tions as a writer and as a I ■ and their daughter, Shu ■ ra, died after putting ■ their heads together in W the oven. / “I refuse to be drawn / into reading ['Birthday / Letters’] as a kind of psy chic healing for Hughes or as a recognition that we should forgive him,” Ford said. So how are readers sup wne conmctea. "We see in her strug gles a kind of 1950s femi ninity come up against the brick wall of how can a woman be a ge nius and a real woman, too,” Ford said. “Plath is sort of the culmina tion of that vein of women’s writing where it seems that these are mutually ex clusive pursuits ... she simply wanted to be COUH'^SYPHoro posed to be attected by this book? Is there really going to be a transformation in the minds of “the consumers of literature and poetry, those who have a true interest in the art and not the sensational de tails,” Jackson asked. Ford sums it up best: “In the abstract you might think he’s kind of a creep for abandoning her ... none of that is very inter esting finally. What is interesting — what’s unfoigivable — is what he did with the literary remains.” Got Involved in University Affairs Join The International Student Advisory Committee: • Discusses issues concerning the University’s international community • Helps build bridges among international students, faculty and administrators Applications are now available at: • the Office of International Education & Exchange (330 Oregon Hall) & • International Student Association Office, located in (room 206, EMU) Extended Application Due Date: Wednesday, February 18, 1998 4:30 pm OIEE Office For questions, please see Ginny Stark in OIEE or e-mail: soon @gladstone. u Oregon. edu Oregon daily emerald worldwide you can read the emerald from anywhere in the world. WWW. uoregon.edu/~ode ^e*uUe& Jlcutdutq, 1214 K 5 « « * A w Kincaid M-F open @ 7:30-... Sat-Sun open @9:00a~... Senui*tfy AeoAte aM ^Ac^fie^ cutct ei^ee Since 'Pefaucdsicf, 14, 19$1
