Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1998. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 317-329).

The present study establishes a more full and accurate understanding of the importance of mysticism in the art and life of Emily Dickinson, and shows that because of the physiological changes endured by the mystic and the unique relationship between mysticism and madness, what might be read literally as madness (psychosis) in Dickinson's poems should be seen as a metaphor for the dark counterpoint of the mystical cycle.Chapter One establishes a necessary background on mysticism and discusses the effects of mystical experience on the mind and body of the mystic. As the mystic undergoes spiritual purification, she will be changed physiologically because the central nervous system has to be cultured and strengthened to withstand the changes created by the transcendental level of consciousness.Chapter Two chronologically documents Dickinson's mystical achievement, using her letters as the primary source and Evelyn Underhill's five stages of mystical development as the base of measurement. Dickinson achieved the first mystic life-Awakening, Purgation, and Illumination. Hints of the Dark Night of the Soul may be seen in her later years, but there does not appear to be firm evidence that it was ever fully established. Oscillating between states of pain and pleasure throughout her life, she did not achieve the perfect serenity, peace, and certitude that characterizes Union. Chapter Three examines the symbiotic relationship between mysticism and madness, to show that they share a common source and the end result depends on the preparedness of the individual. Chapter Four examines selected poems, written from 1859-65, from the perspective that Dickinson is a mystic describing mystical experience rather than a psychotic describing insanity. Chapter Four, as does Chapter Three, refers to the interpretation of Dickinson's poetry made by the Freudian psychiatrist, Dr. John Cody, because his interpretation has made the strongest argument for literal madness in Dickinson's work. Chapter Three shows the insufficiency of the argument to explain Dickinson, other mystics, and two of the parallel cases Cody used to support his thesis; Chapter Four demonstrates the same insufficiency when applied to Dickinson's poems of madness, terror, and despair. Chapter Five briefly examines the relationship between Dickinson, the mystic, and Dickinson, the poet. / Department of English

The primary sources for this study are Dickinson's poems and letters. The purpose is to examine child imagery in Dickinson's work, and the investigation is based on the chronological age of children in the images. Dickinson's small child exists in mystical communion with nature and deity. Inevitably the child is wrenched from this divine state by one of three estranging forces: adult society, death, or love. After the estrangement the state of childhood may be regained only after death, at which time the soul enters immortality as a small child. The study moreover contends that one aspect of Dickinson's seclusion was an endeavor to remain a child.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1988. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 509-526).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1987. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-237). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-124).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-05-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:35:08Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 wiechmann_nh_me_arafcl.pdf: 656875 bytes, checksum: d6ea00bec81ccc40296221293f13a10f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Esta dissertação tem por objetivo apresentar os resultados da pesquisa de mestrado intitulada primeiramente Aspectos da autoria feminina na poesia de Emily Dickinson, modificada posteriormente pelo título A questão da autoria feminina na poesia de Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) foi uma poeta norte-americana cuja obra é bastante conhecida por suas características particulares, tanto na forma quanto no conteúdo: o uso excessivo do travessão, das incorreções gramaticais, das metáforas constantes, dos paradoxos e da ironia, além das imagens que ela desenha da morte, de Deus, do ambiente doméstico feminino e das relações amorosas, entre outros tantos traços que fazem sua poesia destacar-se no panorama da literatura ocidental. Partindo do contexto em que a poeta se insere, este trabalho buscou investigar as relações entre a poesia de Emily Dickinson e a autoria feminina na tentativa de identificar possíveis manifestações poéticas de uma consciência das relações de gênero. Para isso, adotamos a crítica literária feminista de vertente norte-americana como base teórica e metodológica. Num primeiro momento, traçamos o percurso desenvolvido pela critica literária em geral desde as primeiras publicações dos poemas dickinsonianos até o surgimento e fortalecimento da crítica literária feminista. Em seguida, discutimos as principais questões trabalhadas por essa postura crítica e como ela tem visto a poesia de Emily Dickinson. Dedicamo-nos, então, à sua obra refletindo sobre como seus traços mais marcantes podem se relacionar à autoria feminina e propomos a análise de três poemas - “The Soul selects her own Society – ”, “I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that – ” e “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – ” – em que pudemos verificar... / This thesis aims to present the results of the Master’s research firstly entitled Aspects of the female authorship in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, but whose title later became The issue of the female authorship in the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet whose work is widely known for its particular characteristics, both in its form and content: the excessive use of dashes, the grammar incorrections, the constant metaphors, paradoxes and irony, besides the images she makes of death, of God, of the womanly domestic environment and of the love relationships, among many other features that give her poetry a prominent place in the Western literature. Starting from the context in which her poetry is inserted, this researched aimed to investigate the relations between Emily Dickinson’s poetry and the female authorship in an attempt to identify possible poetic manifestations of a gender relations awareness. In order to do that, we have taken the American literary feminist criticism as our theoretical and methodological basis. In a first moment, we have traced the trajectory developed by literary criticism in general since the first Dickinson’s poems were published until the emergence and strengthening of the literary feminist criticism. After that, we have discussed the main questions of this critical view and also how they have worked with Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Then we focus on her work to discuss how its most remarkable features may be related to the female authorship and we propose the analysis of three poems – “The Soul selects her own Society – ”, “I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that – ” and “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – ” – in which we could see how the female authorship does... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

The subjunctive mood in the poems of Emily Dickinson was from the outset a source of confusion to editors and readers. The first editors thought that these forms, in particular the third person singular verbs which omit the s inflection, were incorrect usages. These editors often ''corrected" them by adding the missing inflection. Later, more scholarly critics recognized and labelled them as forms of the subjunctive mood. Since 1955 Thomas Johnson and some other contemporary critics have suggested that they are not true subjunctives but forms of a "universal present indicative." It is now known that the chief influences on Emily Dickinson's poetic style were from Elizabethan literature, written in a language rich in subjunctives and the other archaisms which characterize her poetry. There is little or no correspondence in the appearance of subjunctive forms in the letters and in the poems. The subjunctives were almost entirely poetic devices. The subjunctive forms in poems appear in many different syntactic and semantic contexts. Therefore, one explanation of these forms is not satisfactory, although the Johnson interpretation may apply to a few poems. In 1863 Emily Dickinson used them in an average of one in every three poems, a frequency twice as high as the average. Furthermore, that frequency built up to the year 1863 and gradually declined thereafter. She apparently chose the subjunctives deliberately and they became a characteristic of her finest work. / Master of Arts

La première partie de ce mémoire consiste en un recueil de poèmes intitulé « L’empreinte du large ». Le saisissement a été au coeur de ma démarche d’écriture, en ce sens que la poésie permet, dans un même élan, de saisir le langage et d’être saisi par lui, de créer et d’être créé, d’élargir la conscience et d’être transformé par ce surcroît de conscience. Dans mon recueil, l’intime côtoie l’universel, le quotidien interroge l’infini, l’ordinaire fait face au sacré. Ces thèmes ont été inspirés par la lecture des poèmes de la grande poète américaine, Emily Dickinson. La deuxième partie du mémoire est consacrée à un essai réflexif intitulé « Saisie par l’insaisissable : le thème de la verticalité dans la poésie d’Emily Dickinson ». Dans cet essai, j’explore le thème de la verticalité à partir des motifs de la montagne, de l’oiseau et de l’arbre. L’objectif était de trouver dans le paysage dickinsonien les traces de la grande capacité de la poète à se laisser saisir. La critique thématique, telle qu’appliquée par le critique littéraire Jean-Pierre Richard, a fourni le cadre théorique et l’approche méthodologique de l’essai. / The first part of this Master’s thesis is a collection of poems titled “L’empreinte du large”. The approach I used was based on the poet’s capacity to take the language and, in the same movement, to be taken by it. In my poetry, the intimate coexists with the universal; everyday life questions the infinity; and the common faces the sacred. Theses themes were inspired by the great American poet, Emily Dickinson. The second part of the Master’s thesis is devoted to an essay titled “Saisie par l’insaisissable: le thème de la verticalité dans la poésie d’Emily Dickinson”. In this essay, I explore the theme of verticality as symbolized and thematized respectively by the mountain, the bird, and the tree. The objective was to find the signs of Emily Dickinson’s capacity to be astonished. The theory of thematic criticism, as applied by the literary critic Jean-Pierre Richard, provides a conceptual framework and a methodology for the essay.