The Cambridge introduction to Emily Dickinson / Wendy Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Wendy, 1940- author.

Series:

Cambridge introductions to literature.

Cambridge introductions to literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickinson, Emily.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 148 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Emily Dickinson is best known as an intensely private, even reclusive writer. Yet the way she has been mythologised has meant her work is often misunderstood. This 2007 introduction delves behind the myth to present a poet who was deeply engaged with the issues of her day. In a lucid and elegant style, the book places her life and work in the historical context of the Civil War, the suffrage movement, and the rapid industrialisation of the United States. Wendy Martin explores the ways in which Dickinson's personal struggles with romantic love, religious faith, friendship and community shape her poetry. The complex publication history of her works, as well as their reception, is teased out, and a guide to further reading is included. Dickinson emerges not only as one of America's finest poets, but also as a fiercely independent intellect and an original talent writing poetry far ahead of her time.

Contents:

Preface

Chapter 1. Life. The Dickinson family ; A portrait of the poet as a young girl ; Early ambitions, difficult changes ; Preceptors ; "Sister Sue" ; A "Woman

white

to be"

Chapter 2. Context. Religious culture : Puritanism, the Great Awakenings, and revivals ; Industrialization and the individual ; Political culture : expansion and the antebellum period ; Social movements : Abolition and women's rights ; Philosophical reactions : Transcendentalism ; The Civil War

Chapter 3. Works. Sweeping with many-colored brooms : the influence of the domestic ; Blasphemous devotion : biblical allusion in the poems and letters ; "Easy, quite, to love" : friendship and love in Dickinson's life and works ; "The Heaven

below" : nature poems ; "A Riddle, at the last" : death and immortality

Chapter 4. Reception. "The Auction Of the Mind" : publication history ; Editing the poems and letters ; Early reception ; New Criticism ; Dickinson's legacy.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-16641-1

1-280-81558-2

0-511-61102-1

0-511-27468-8

0-511-27538-2

0-511-27312-6

0-511-56865-7

0-511-27391-6

OCLC:

780849069