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Sylvia Plath, Witchcraft & Radical Poetry
with Dr Dorka Tamás
£13.50
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About this talk
Sylvia Plath is best known for her novel The Bell Jar (1963) and her emotive, striking poetry. She grew up in Massachusetts, close to Salem, a place closely linked to the history of the witch trials. During the 1950s, renewed public interest in these events influenced Plath’s writing and imagination. Plath often used images of witches and witch trials to explore power, identity and injustice. Her poetry reflects her concerns about control and authority in society, while also showing sympathy for those unfairly accused.
In this talk, Dr Dorka Tamás explores how Plath connects with witchcraft and poetic language, and how the figure of the witch appears in different forms in her work. We’ll look at the contrast between fictional “evil” witches from fairy tales and the real historical victims who were accused of witchcraft, and punished by patriarchal systems of power.
A peek inside
Your speaker: Dr Dorka Tamás
Dr Dorka Tamás is a researcher and teacher based at Royal Holloway, University of London. She earned her PhD in English literature from the University of Exeter (2022) and her Master’s degree from the University of Sussex (2018). Dorka specialised in twentieth- century women’s poetry, particularly Sylvia Plath, the legacies of early modern witch-hunt in literature, and post-1945 American culture. She is the author of Sylvia Plath and the Supernatural and editor of The New Sylvia Plath Studies.
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