Our Emily Dickinsons: American Women Poets and the Intimacies of Difference

Vivian R. Pollak

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2017

Our Emily Dickinsons

American Women Poets and the Intimacies of Difference

Vivian R. Pollak

In the series Haney Foundation Series

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812293227

Overview
Contents

About this book

Our Emily Dickinsons situates Dickinson's life and work within larger debates about gender, sexuality, and literary authority in America. Examining Dickinson's influence on Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop and others, Vivian R. Pollak complicates the connection between authorial biography and poetry that endures.

Author / Editor information

Vivian R. Pollak is Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. She is author of Dickinson: The Anxiety of Gender and The Erotic Whitman.

Reviews

"Vivian R. Pollak provides an entirely original, subtle, and insightful reading of the gender anxieties of women poets as revealed through their responses to reading Dickinson and each other, or sometimes through their sense of Dickinson as the inevitable point of comparison. Pollak contributes a plethora of information previously unknown or not widely known about the relationships between the later poets she studies and between those women and Dickinson, and she offers astute readings of their often nuanced comments on Dickinson (and each other) in reviews, letters, diaries, or published prose. There is no other book like it!"—Cristanne Miller, University of Buffalo

"Pollak beautifully analyses the changing attitude of women poets whose psychological connections to and disconnections from Dickinson take place through the practices of reading . . . Our Emily Dickinsons marks the historical and cultural place that Dickinson has occupied in the American consciousness through a skilful weaving: of biography with poetry; diary and journal entries with literary reviews; and newspaper advertisements with personal letters."—Modern Language Review

"Elegantly written, witty, and consistently illuminating in its readings, Vivian Pollak's book represents feminist literary criticism at its best. In luminous detail, the book reveals the ways American women poets have engaged their own gendered anxieties and fears through their intimate encounters with Emily Dickinson."—Betsy Erkkilä, Northwestern University

"Vivian Pollak's ingenious look at Emily Dickinson's hold on the imagination of three late modernist poets (Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath) is stunning in its revelations and riveting in its analysis of how the ever-mysterious Queen of Calvary works her magic differently on each poet and on each new generation of readers. This book is brilliant. I finished it and, captivated, turned back to page one and began again."—Mary Jo Bang, Washington University in St. Louis

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Dickinson and the Demands of Intimacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Helen Hunt Jackson and Dickinson’s Personal Publics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Chapter 2. Mabel Loomis Todd and Dickinson’s Art of Sincerity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Chapter 3. ‘‘The Wholesomeness of the Life’’: Marianne Moore’s Unartificial Dickinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Chapter 4. Moore, Plath, Hughes, and ‘‘The Literary Life’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Chapter 5. Plath’s Dickinson: On Not Stopping for Death Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Chapter 6. Elizabeth Bishop and the U.S.A. Schools of Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Conclusion. Dickinson and the Demands of Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Index of Dickinson’s Poems and Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 368
Illustrations
- Other: 31 illus.
Keywords: Literature; Poetry; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: October 19, 2016
ISBN: 9780812293227