Dissertation Information for Martha Nell SmithNAME:
DEGREE:
DISCIPLINE:
SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected Title: "ROWING IN EDEN": GENDER AND THE POETICS OF EMILY DICKINSON
Abstract: these correspondences. Examining her strategies for creating her audiences and surviving as Poet, it restores the contextuality of her work by comparing and contrasting her various presentations to different audiences. First it examines her correspondence with the world of print and her subsequent decision to fashion her own method of publication; second it reads her publication to her primary audience Susan Dickinson; third, her publication to the community of women who supported and nurtured her; fourth, her publication to Thomas Higginson and other men who were her friends; and finally it reads her publication to posterity. All readings will be illuminated by relevant comments by, to, from and about her most influential teacher, Susan Dickinson. Because there are striking differences reflecting the gender proscriptions of nineteenth-century American culture between the strategies Dickinson used with men and the way she presented herself to women, this review of Dickinson's correspondences is organized according to the gender of the recipients. Seeking to recover her self-presentation in every way possible, this is in part a manuscript study which represents Dickinson's unusual lineation, pictures her extraordinary punctuation, and notes her integration of poetry and prose texts. Observing that the fact that Dickinson was a woman has influenced reading this poet's work more than anything else, this study attempts to correct prevailing misperceptions and further our understanding of the poet. For example, in an effort to dispel the myth, "Our Emily," it points out how obsessive misreading of "The Master Letters," one of her most brief and problematic correspondences of record, has overshadowed not only the study of her most voluminous correspondence, but also the study of the poet's composing process made possible by the existence of such drafts as these letters, the audience and intention of which cannot be certainly determined. |
MPACT Scores for Martha Nell SmithA = 0 Advisors and Advisees Graphgenerating graph, please reload |
Students under Martha Nell Smith
ADVISEES:
- None
COMMITTEESHIPS:
- Sarah Elizabeth Zach - University of Maryland (2002)