"""My friends are very few"": The influence of Emily Dickinson's select contemporary audience on her poetry"

This study contributes a new information about Emily Dickinson's poetic purposes and methods, refuting the common assumption that the poet wrote in isolation. It examines the nearly six hundred poems embedded in letters, enclosed with letters, shared as fair copies, or published, that the poet chose to share with her peers. These shared poems allow the poet to explore the relationship between self and others, poet and audience. An analysis of these poems as a group reveals that Dickinson is ambivalent about writing to and for an audience, and this ambivalence influences the subject matter and style of her poetry.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Tingley, Stephanie Ann

• Literature, American

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8721771

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69466