Sylvia Plath and her work from the perspective of psychobiography

The goal of my bachelor's thesis is to analyse the relationship between Sylvia Plath's biography and her work, focusing on the so-called confidence poems, especially in the question of her relationship with her father, using the principles of psychobiography. The first part of the thesis focuses on the concepts of psychobiography as conceived by William T. Schultz and the psychology of artistic literature. The thesis also includes a brief biography of Sylvia Plath, an introduction of confessional poetry, and a short survey of the author's work. The primary sources I work with in this thesis are Plath's artwork and her journals. In this thesis I also present three different studies that have previously focused on Sylvia Plath's work and life. For the purpose of this thesis, I have chosen the poem Daddy, one of Sylvia Plath's most famous poems, which I discuss and analyse in detail in the thesis. I will interpret the findings psychologically, primarily using a psychoanalytic perspective. Finally, I compare my findings with the biography of the subject under study. KEYWORDS psychobiography; psychoanalysis; suicide; Sylvia Plath; relationship with father; poetr