Abstract
This article analyzes Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, focusing on protagonist Esther Greenwood’s subjectivation processes. Understanding that Esther begins her journey identifying herself with the place of a foreigner, it illustrates how her experience shifts to one of exile. It explores how the political economy of desire conditions women to self-alienation and how this leads them to exile. The concepts of foreigner and exile are elaborated in dialogue with a schizoanalytic concept of territory. Finally, the article shows how Plath creates an imaginary that works with different parameters than those imposed by male desire.
The Bell Jar; Subjectivation processes; Feminist criticism; Desire; Territory