Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of the past half-century's critical reassessments of one of the most-studied American poets. When Klaus Lubbers's meticulously detailed Emily Dickinson: The Critical Revolution appeared in 1968, examining Dickinson criticism up to 1962, a second revolution in Dickinson criticism was already gathering force, as a new generation of scholars representing a wide spectrum of critical perspectives began reassessing the poet's life and work. In the intervening forty years, approximately 100 books about Dickinson and her oeuvre have appeared, making her one of the most extensively studied American poets in history. Approaching Emily Dickinson provides an objective examination of that vast body of scholarship. It gives detailed attention to the principal trends in Dickinson scholarship during the past half-century: biographical studies; feminist perspectives on the poet's life and work; rhetorical and stylistic analyses; textual studies of the bound and unbound fascicles and the so-called worksheet drafts; studies of Dickinson's social and cultural milieu, including influences on her spirituality, and of her theories of poetry. Fred White also examines Dickinson's artistic reception -- an area of ever-growing fascination, not only among Dickinson scholars but among artists, creative writers, dramatists, and musicians for whom Dickinson's genius has proven to be a powerful conduit for insights into the human condition. A fundamental research tool for both scholars and students, Approaching Emily Dickinson also enables fruitful comparisons both among and within the different critical and artistic perspectives. Fred D. White is Professor of English at Santa Clara University. His studies of Emily Dickinson have been published in College Literature and in the Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson.
Trade ReviewWhite's comprehensive and engaging book so effectively unites a balanced assessment of relevant scholarship with insight into prevailing trends that it is destined to become essential reading for both students coming to Dickinson for the first time and scholars long familiar with the field of Dickinson studies. White helps experienced scholars acknowledge those whose work has made their own thought possible at the same time that he provides those new to Dickinson with a lively sense of the expanding panorama of interpretive possibilities that continues to define the field of Dickinson scholarship. -- Paul Crumbley, Utah State University, president of The Emily Dickinson International Society
Fred White's survey of Dickinson scholarship since 1960 is an essential resource for both long-term readers of Dickinson and those coming to her work for the first time. Readers interested in knowing how Dickinson criticism developed from 1960 to the present will find this book a highly informative and stimulating read. * THE EMILY DICKINSON JOURNAL *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Approaching Dickinson's Rhetoric, Poetics and Stylistics Trends in Dickinson Biography and Biographical/Psychoanalytic Criticism The Feminist Revolution in Dickinson Crticism The Manuscripts of a Non-Print Poet Dickinson in Cultural Context: Principal Critical Insights Dickinson's Poetic Spirituality Scholarship on Archetypal and Philosophical Themes in Dickinson's Poetry Reassesing Dickinson's Poetic Project: A Postmodern Perspective Emily Dickinson in Belles Lettres, Music, and Art Concluding Reflections Selected Editions of Emily Dickinson's Poems and Lettres Works Cited Index Index of First Lines
