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1 results

  • Chapter 17 - ‘Woman-haters Were Like Gods’: The Bell Jar and Violence Against Women in 1950s America

  • from Part IV - Sexual and Gender Contexts
  • Edited by Tracy Brain, Bath Spa University
  • Book:
    Sylvia Plath in Context
    Published online:
    03 August 2019
    Print publication:
    22 August 2019, pp 180-190

  • Summary

    Contemporary readers tend to view The Bell Jar through a post-feminist lens. Kate Harding situates the novel within a cultural and historical moment that we too readily lose sight of. Harding reads the novel in the context of 1950s discourses in which the gendered roles that Esther resists are enforced by sexual violence. Drawing on mid-twentieth century rape laws, Harding reveals the disconnect between Esther’s view of events and the contemporary readers’. Where the latter will see acquaintance rape and female victimisation, the former will see sexual availability and victim-blaming. In her brave and original response to The Bell Jar, Harding brings to light the pervasive rape culture that underpins Esther’ss story, and reveals the importance of this underpinning to our understanding of the novel.