Confessional Echoes and ‘Bad Mothers’: The Influence of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath on Contemporary Spanish Poets Pilar Adón and Luna Miguel
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/grove.v33.9738Keywords:
Sylvia Plath , Anne Sexton, Confessional poetry , Motherhood, female taboos, Spanish contemporary women poetsAbstract
This article examines the influence of confessional poetry by Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath on contemporary Spanish poets Pilar Adón and Luna Miguel. Focusing on the period 2000-2025, the study explores how themes such as motherhood, female sexual taboos, and family relationships—addressed openly by Sexton and Plath—have been recovered and redefined by Adón and Miguel within the current Spanish context. The article highlights the significance of breaking taboos and affirming the female poetic self, as well as the adaptation of Anglo-American models to Spanish reality. It concludes with an analysis of motherhood and the figure of the “bad mother” as central, contested issues, arguing that the confessional voice has enable contemporary Spanish poets to engage in dialogue with their predecessors and to challenge social and familial constrains.
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