Professor's book gives focus to Sylvia Plath's early works

The Journey Toward 'Ariel': Sylvia Plath's Poems of 1956-1959 is a publication of the Lund University Press of Sweden. Funding for the 293-page work was provided by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, along with Mississippi State's offices of the Provost and Research.

Born in 1932, Plath was an American poet whose intense and personal works were considered daring in their explorations of often-ignored subject matters. Her Collected Poems was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1982, nearly two decades after her death.

Plath's topics were primarily focused in the psychological realm, in consideration of death and suicide, and in the presentation of the woman's point of view. Her 1963 autobiographical account, The Bell Jar, deals with the events surrounding a young woman's emotional breakdown. That same year, Plath committed suicide.

"Many see her as a forerunner of the feminist movement," said Hargrove, a Giles Distinguished Professor at the university. "She is a very popular poet in classrooms today."

Hargrove expressed gratitude to the Swedish Council for its support of the book. Although the council rarely gives such a grant to a non-Swedish citizen, Hargrove said her 1992 service as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in the Scandinavian country qualified her for the honor.

Hargrove, who joined the faculty in 1970, teaches 20th century American literature. Over the past three decades, she has held four Fulbright lectureships. Since 1979, she has received a national award for a book on T.S. Eliot and three major honors for teaching excellence.