Her decision to publish under a pseudonym may have stemmed from a wish to distinguish herself from her husband, the British poet Ted Hughes, especially as several reviewers of her earlier works had identified her as "Mrs. Sylvia Plath wrote this semi-autobiographical novel about mental illness shortly before committing suicide.
Should the censor be able to edit the telling of one's own life?Įvans, Mary Ann.
This case contains the stories of Malcolm X and Maya Angelou, personal narratives equally forceful for their assertion that the African-American experience cannot be ignored, silenced, or easily labeled. The autobiography that challenges our comfort zone and our vision of society stands at the forefront of rebellious literature. The refusal to conform and the insistence on speaking personal truths plainly have rung out as calls to arms. Under these circumstances, is using a pseudonym a form of censorship? They could stay safely within their class and even assert the privilege of upper-class women whose names were only to appear in public three times in their lives: in announcing their birth, marriage, and death. Hidden under the shield of masculine authority, women could express unorthodox points of view. The female writer, branded "half-Man" or "petticoat-author," used the pseudonym to gain respectability and a serious audience. At one end of the spectrum, we find subterfuge, at the other, open rebellion.įor nineteenth-century women writers, unable to publish because of their gender, the power of censorship and social censure forced them to resort to male pennames. This pressure to conform has resulted in various artistic responses. They have exercised their red pens to keep classes, genders, and races within the boundaries of social expectations. Censors have sought to guard the cultural narratives of the mainstream from alternative and fringe views. Many authors have been suppressed more because of their minority status than their actual words. London: Heinemann, 1963.įrom the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.
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