THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF THE AUTHOR: SYLVIA PLATH’S DIGITAL AFTERLIFE

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the relationship between author and reader in relation to the written text. I apply a psychoanalytic and semiotic lens, based on Julia Kristeva’s Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, and understand writing as externalization and a translation between the pre-verbal semiotic order and the symbolic order of language. As such, it becomes essential for the subject’s ability to signify and create meaning. Sublimation allows for what exists outside of words to emerge as coherent expression. I view the text as a written double and a mirror to the author that can contribute to self-creation. Since the written double is only an aspect of the author, the mirror image is imperfect. Readers only have access to that fragmented picture, and in their attempt to reconstruct its entirety, they internalize the fragments and fill the gaps with their own experience. This makes writing a complex psychic process that goes two ways. On the one hand, the author externalizes parts of the self which then, ideally, are re-integrated. Consequently, the reader encounters this externalized self as “other”, recognizes aspects of themselves within it, and identifies with it. The written double, thus, becomes a mirror to the reader’s self as well. The rebirth of the author is a result of an ongoing process of fragmentation, projection, and identification. On social media, this extends further; the internalized version is then externalized again as a performance. This is central to the way readers consume and reproduce literature in the digital age. In this case study, I examine Sylvia Plath’s evolving cultural legacy, particularly her portrayal on social media, where her image is often romanticized and recast as a modern mythic heroine. I view this digital reanimation of the author as a collective ritual of self-creation.