The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson

by Edited by Wendy Martin

• ISBN13: 9780521001182
• ISBN10: 0521001188
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Emily Dickinson, one of the most important American poets of the nineteenth century, remains an intriguing and fascinating writer. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson includes eleven new essays by accomplished Dickinson scholars. They cover Dickinson's biography, publication history, poetic themes and strategies, and her historical and cultural contexts. As a woman poet, Dickinson's literary persona has become incredibly resonant in the popular imagination. She has been portrayed as singular, enigmatic, and even eccentric. At the same time, Dickinson is widely acknowledged as one of the founders of American poetry, an innovative pre-modernist poet as well as a rebellious and courageous woman. This volume introduces new and practised readers to a variety of critical responses to Dickinson's poetry and life, and provides several valuable tools for students, including a chronology and suggestions for further reading.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Chronology	xiv
Abbreviations for frequently cited works	xvi
Introduction	1	(10)
Wendy Martin
BIOGRAPHY AND PUBLICATION HISTORY
The Emily Dickinson wars	11	(19)
Betsy Erkkila
Emily Dickinson and the American South	30	(21)
Christopher Benefey
Susan and Emily Dickinson: their lives, in letters	51	(26)
Martha Nell Smith
POETIC STRATEGIES AND THEMES
Emily Dickinson and poetic strategy	77	(14)
Wendy Barker
Emily Dickinson's existential dramas	91	(16)
Fred D. White
Performances of gender in Dickinson's poetry	107	(22)
Suzanne Juhasz
Cristanne Miller
Emily Dickinson: being in the body	129	(13)
Shira Wolosky
Emily Dickinson and the Gothic in Fascicle 16	142	(25)
Daneen Wardrop
CULTURAL CONTEXTS
Emily Dickinson and popular culture	167	(24)
David S. Reynolds
Emily Dickinson and class	191	(24)
Domhnall Mitchell
Emily Dickinson and her American women poet peers	215	(21)
Paula Bernat Bennett
Select bibliography	236	(9)
Index	245