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This talk looks at Sylvia Plath’s complex and multifaceted depiction of witches in her poetry and prose. I discuss her engagement with the historical witch-hunt period, particularly the Salem witch trials and the way in which she transforms, reimagines, and adapts elements of witchcraft and witches from literature within the context of the post-war American political and cultural landscape. During McCarthyism, the concept of the witch-hunt was revived and was identified with the political Communists and political nonconformists. I look at Plath’s well-versed knowledge of the legacy of the Salem witch trials in post-war America as an abuse of institutional power in literature and public discourses from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s prose to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Plath’s interest in the witch-hunt was two-fold: she had an emotional resonance to the witch executions and interest in representations of magical power in early modern period literature;on the other hand, she had extensive knowledge of and interest in the politics of the early Cold War. Plath was well-informed of the simultaneous discourses and sought inspiration from politics, literature, and popular culture to portray witches and the witch-hunt in her writings. My lecture demonstrates that her representation of witches is not only one-dimensional or proto-feminist: even though some of her witch-like figures in her poetry and short stories defy male authority, such as “Lady Lazarus”, her main inspiration is the parallels between institutional abuse of power during the New England witch-hunt and McCarthyism. In her work, Plath directly references American witch history, politics, and literary witches to portray the outcast, nonconformist, or bad mothers. This lecture contextualises Sylvia Plath’s magical affiliations within the Cold War and shows her deep understanding and knowledge of the witch in history and culture. This lecture draws on the research in my forthcoming monograph, Sylvia Plath and the Supernatural, published by Cambridge University Press in January 2026.
