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In her lifetime Emily Dickinson wrote over 1, 775 poems, none of which were published while she was still alive. Dickinson's writing styles and formats reflected several movements of her era including the revival of Puritanism, feminism, Transcendentalism, and Romanticism. These movements influenced the lifestyle and writing of Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson has shaped much of feminist criticism.
Throughout the growth of feminist criticism Dickinson is still the focal point. Dickinson's poetry also shows evidence of a feminist humor. Feminist studies of Dickinson include her relationships as well as alleged relationships in regards to her sexuality, her humor in a satirical sense when looking at the women of her time, as well as even challenging the idea of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse. Even with humor evident in her poetry feminists do not debate the fact that elements of tragedy also influence her poetry. Elements of tragedy seen in Dickinson's poetry, especially of death and the emphasis of human mortality, are derivative from another movement of her time.
American Romanticism included themes of nature as well as death mortality in what is referred to as Dark Romanticism. Dickinson's Puritan heritage was another influence that affected her lifestyle from an early age. Dickinson uses such devices as sacramental imagery from her childhood religion. Dickinson was born into a prominent and staunchly religious family and rebelled against her upbringing in religion and social prominence in her later years. Her reclusiveness as well as her apparent Transcendentalist views was a result of Dickinson and her fathers differing opinions about life, mankind, and the world they lived in. Some critics believe that in rebellion against her staunch Puritan heritage and upbringing Emily Dickinson became more of a transcendentalist.
Many ties have been made between romanticism and transcendentalism and many of Dickinson's contemporaries fit into both categories. Possibly the greatest indication that Dickinson had inclinations from transcendentalism was the amount of text in which nature takes a central role. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts to a prosperous and well known family (wikipedia). Dickinson's grandfather was one of the founders of Amherst College, and her father, Edward Dickinson, was a prominent lawyer as well as treasurer for the college (wikipedia). Dickinson's father also served on the Massachusetts General Court, Massachusetts Senate, and the US House of Representatives (wikipedia). Dickinson's mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was a shy and quiet woman who was chronically ill.
Dickinson had one brother and one sister: William Austin Dickinson and Lavinia Norcross Dickinson (wikipedia). Dickinson grew up in her family's Amherst home, and attended the nearby Amherst Academy until the age of seventeen, when she transferred to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (wikipedia). After less than a year of attending the seminary, Dickinson took ill and her brother William, more commonly known as Austin, was sent to bring her home. Aside from a few trips to Boston and various other locations after coming home from the seminary, Dickinson spent her entire life living in her fathers house. She dressed only in white and developed the reputation of being anti-social and an agoraphobic recluse (wikipedia) (Myers). Dickinson's experience at the seminary may well have fueled the fire of her independence and been one of the contributing factors for her decision to stop attending church, and retain her reclusive and anti social reputation.
Dickinson never married, and her relationships and alleged relationships are still studied and debated. Dickinson's emotional life remains mysterious, despite much speculation about a possible disappointed love affair. Two candidates have been presented: Reverend Charles Wadsworth, with whom she corresponded, and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican, to whom she addressed many poems (Books and Writings 1). Some critics are challenging her sexuality and believe that there was more to her intimate relationship with friend and sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert than meets the eye. Her relationships and sexuality have become very controversial amongst biographers and critics alike. Dickinson lived most of her life alone in her house, reclusive and anti social.
Emily Dickinson died on May 15, 1886 of Brights disease. Although regarded as one of the most prominent 19 th century poets, Dickinson did not publish any of her works in her lifetime. After Dickinson's death her poems were brought out by her sister Lavinia, who co-edited three volumes from 1891 to 1896 (Books and Writings 2). Despite arguments and critics, Emily Dickinson is still a widely read poet. Although interest in one or more lovers continues, as does attention to the poet's religious quest and to her quiet subversion of gender assumptions, Emily Dickinson's poems steadily gain recognition as works of art, both individually and collectively, especially when read in her original fascicle groupings, which establish not just her unquestionable brilliance but her frequently underestimated artistic control (Modern American Poetry 2). Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest American women poets of all time.
As much as feminist studies of her have changed and shaped our understanding of her life and poetry Dickinson's impact has been no less important on the development of feminist criticism. Emily Dickinson has been the center of feminist criticism in all the stages of its development. As feminist criticism has grown and matured Emily Dickinson has remained the focal point (Handbook 342). Some feminist critics have even challenged the popular notion of Dickinson as reclusive, eccentric figure. They have underlined her intellectual struggle and passive aggressiveness. They claim Dickinson's verse is full of allusions to volcanoes, shipwrecks, funerals, and other manifestations of natural and human violence, which she hide into her writings (Books and Writings).
Although some view Dickinson as morbid and morose, some of her poetry does present more than just her views about death. As feminist criticism has grown in its field the conceptions of Emily Dickinson have grown as well, changing throughout the decades from her place in a literary world dominated by men, to linguistic and psychoanalytic approaches to her poetry and life, and concluding in the 1990 s with explorations of her lesbian identity and her relationship with Susan Gilbert (Handbook 342). Dickinson encouraged the move of feminist criticism from narrative explanations of women writers into stylistic analyses of their work (Handbook 342). Through the changing opinions and conceptions of Emily Dickinson throughout the development of feminist criticism one common dividing line has remained between the critics that wish to classify Dickinson as a nineteenth century poet and those who wish to classify her as a modernist poet. Dickinson's traits and characteristics allow her to escape all efforts to contain her to one particular genre or another. Adrienne Rich's reading of Emily Dickinson and her later published essay point out that Emily Dickinson seems to regard herself as an imperious energy and her poetic creation as a form of aggression.
Rich transfigured understanding of Dickinson and of poetic power in women. Rich also focused attention on the enraged Dickinson of the first feminist conceptions, and turned attention to the little read poem My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun which was to become the centerpiece of the feminist criticism of Dickinson. Enraged and assertive the Dickinson described by Rich as well as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gear exemplifies the spilt in the nineteenth century woman writer between her conventional role in society and her own creativity. Dickinson's humor was often underestimated by her critics; she is seen as a tragic figure even though some of her poems deal with serious personal issues through humor (Readings 108). In Dickinson's poems about animals for example, she portrays her non human characters through amplified social roles, preceding the technique of Ogden Nash by almost a hundred years. Suzanne Juhasz, Christanne Miller and Martha Neil Smith- authors of The Comic Power in Emily- argue that Dickinson was deeply aware of her own limited social role and her political humor is best appreciated in light of her perspective as a while, middle class woman keenly aware of the expectations placed on a woman writer in her era, (Readings 108).
Dickinson used her humor for comic relief and to stress a thought or conclusion about her life and environment. In Faith is a Fine Invention Dickinson demonstrates her satirical thoughts at faith and the limitations it presents, as well as two important issues of her day: the importance of faith vs. the importance of science, and which of the two was stronger. Dickinson's scrutiny of life and death takes precedence when critics analyze and evaluate her poetry (Readings 108).
However there is comedy evident in her work as well. It is a part of Dickinson's profundity (Readings 108). It is no coincidence that feminist critics have chosen this subject, for comedy is aligned with subversive and disruptive modes that offer alternative perspectives on culture (Readings 108 - 109). Dickinson uses her feminist humor when critiquing American patriarchy. However this feminist humor is often overlooked (Readings 109).
A feminist critical approach to Dickinson's comedy shows a poet whose topic and audience are larger than herself (Readings 108). Dickinson's focus on comedy, often ignored by many critics, highlights her responses as a nineteenth century upper middle class woman to situations that both attracted to and angered by. Through formal elements of voice, image and narrative, Dickinson teases, mocks and even outrages her audience in ways that are akin both to the gestures of traditional comedy and to specifically feminist humor (Readings 109). However, the model woman writer that dominated feminist criticism in its earliest stages poorly fit Emily Dickinson. The two main differences that set Dickinson apart were that most models were drawn from female novelists not poets, and second they were efforts to find a general explanation for women writers not one writer in particular (Handbook 342). There are several contributing factors to whether or not Dickinson was comedic or feminist.
Much of Dickinson's comic vision stems from her gender consciousness and is therefore difficult to separate her feminism from her humor (Readings 111). To appreciate the full range of Dickinson's humor, one must be able to conceive of her as a sharp critic of her world, as a self-conscious writer identifying with (at least white middle-class) womens experience as a basis for social criticism, and as a crafter of multiple levels of intention in her poems (Readings 111). Though humor is evident in her work there is no doubt that some of Dickinson's great poetry came out of her despair and suffering (Readings 109). Critics who focus on the direct connection between a writers life and their works are more prone to emphasize the tragic elements of Dickinson's poetry (Readings 110).
Dickinson is a heroine because she suffered so and because she gave us great poetry out of this suffering...
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Research essay sample on Emily Dickinson Feminist Criticism
