![SHIKSHAN SANSHODHAN [ ISSN(O): 2581-6241 ] Peer-Reviewed, Referred, Indexed Research Journal.](https://shikshansanshodhan.researchculturesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/SS-TITLE-HEADER.png)
30, March 2026
Personal, Cultural and Gendered—Shapes the Articulation Of Female Identity in the Poetry Of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton
Author(s): Dr. Mohammad Rizwan Abdul Majid Sheikh.
Authors Affiliations:
Associate Professor & Head Dept. of English
Sarvodaya Mahavidyalaya, Sindewahi, Dist- Chandrapur (Maharashtra State )
DOIs:10.2018/SS/202603006 | Paper ID: SS202603006Abstract
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Abstract: Confessional poetry emerged in mid-twentieth-century America as a radical poetic movement that fore grounded autobiography, psychological disturbance, and intimate revelation. Among its most powerful voices were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, whose works transformed private anguish into public art. This research paper explores how trauma—personal, cultural, and gendered—shapes the articulation of female identity in their poetry. Drawing upon feminist literary theory, psychoanalytic criticism, and trauma studies, the study examines how both poets negotiate themes of mental illness, patriarchy, motherhood, sexuality, and death. While Plath employs mythic symbolism and theatrical intensity to dramatize trauma, Sexton adopts an intimate and therapeutic tone that foregrounds confession as survival. Through comparative textual analysis, this paper argues that both poets reconstruct fractured identities through poetic language, thereby redefining the female confessional voice as an act of resistance and self-fashioning.
Keywords: Confessional Poetry, Female Voice, Trauma, Identity, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Gender, Modern American Poetry.
Dr. Mohammad Rizwan Abdul Majid Sheikh. (2026); Personal, Cultural and Gendered—Shapes the Articulation Of Female Identity in the Poetry Of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, Shikshan Sanshodhan : Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, ISSN(o): 2581-6241, Volume – 9, Issue – 3, Available on – https://shikshansanshodhan.researchculturesociety.org/