Patriarchy and Freedom in Sylvia Plath and Ghada Al-Samm Poems

This essay examines Sylvia Plath’s Daddy and Lady Lazarus, and Ghada Al-Samman ’s A Rebellious Memory and The Chess of the Hypothetical Freedom. It is an attempt to explain the different treatments of patriarchy by two women who are considered pioneers of feminist poets of their generations, but live(d) in very different cultural regions—one in the West, the other in the Middle East. I suggest that Plath has cut off her root from the tough masculine tradition in which “she lived like a foot for thirty years” , and is proud of being “through” with it. Al-Samman’s Middle Eastern-type of feminism, however, places her within a liminal, hesitant position. By relying on poststructuralist feminist theories, this study emphasizes the role of patriarchal societies in molding the subconscious of their subjects; the cultural products created by women are based on discourses of femininity that the patriarchal cultures offer them. This is what makes Ghada’s reaction to her condition highly different than Sylvia’s treatment of it. This article, in a broader perspective, would give the Iranian reader a sense of how contemporary Iranian poets are caught within the feminine discourses of their own societies: celebrating it, or breaking off with it, that which ultimately leads to an increased awareness over the discourses that shape our ideologies.