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This thesis considers a range of contemporary poets' responses to science, emphasising the diversity of these engagements and exploring how poetry can disrupt or re-negotiate the barriers between the two activities. My first chapter explores the idea of ‘authority' in both science and poetry and considers how these authorities co-exist in the work of two poet-scientists, Miroslav Holub and David Morley. My second chapter considers the role of metaphor in science and the effect of transferring scientific terms into poetry, specifically with reference to the poetry of Michael Symmons Roberts who engages with the metaphors related to the human genome. In my third chapter I focus on collections by Ruth Padel and Emily Ballou that tell the life of Charles Darwin in verse. I discuss how these collections function as forms of scientific biography and show that poetic engagement with Darwin's thought processes reveals some of the similarities between scientific and poetic thinking. An area of science such as quantum mechanics may seem too complex for a non-scientist to respond to in poetry, but in my fourth chapter I show how Jorie Graham uses ideas from twentieth-century physics to re-think the materialism of the world and our perception of it. My final chapter is concerned with the relationship between ecopoetry and ecological science, with regard to the work of John Burnside. I show that although he is informed about scientific matters, in his poetry he suggests that science isn't the only way of understanding the world. Rather than framing science and poetry in terms of the ‘two cultures', this thesis moves away from antagonism towards productive interaction and dialogue. Whilst science and poetry are clearly very different activities, the many points of overlap and connection between them suggest that poetry is a resonant and unique way of exploring scientific ideas.

Historically, women have not been "speaking subjects" but "spoken objects" in Western culture--the ground on which male-dominated constructions have been erected. In literature, women have been conventionally held as the silent and silenced other. Lyric poetry especially has idealized not only the entrenched figures of masculine subject/feminine object, but poetry itself as the site of prophecy, vision, Truth. Most dramatically in lyric poetry then, the issue of women as subjects has been collapsed into Woman as object, that figure who has been the sacrifice necessary for the production of lyric "song" and the consolidation of the unified masculine voice. It has thus been difficult for women poets to take up the position of speaking subject, most particularly because of women's problematic relationship to Woman. Recent feminist theorists have explored female subjectivity, how women put into hegemonic discourse "a possible operation of the feminine." This dissertation analyzes that possibility in poetry as exemplified in the works of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and H.D. I contend that these paradigmatic American poets constitute speaking subjects in their poetry that both figure Woman conventionally and reconfigure it, i.e. subvert the stability of those representations, thereby disturbing our view. I argue that this double identification produces, in effect, a divided or split subjectivity that is enabling for the female speaker. As an alternative to the traditionally specularized figure of Woman then, such a position opens up distinctly counter-hegemonic spaces in which to constitute the female subject, rendering problematic readerly consumption of the image of Woman as a totality. I explore the attempts to represent women's difference differently--the tenuous accession to, rejection of, or play with the lyric "I" in these poets' works. Dickinson, Moore, and H.D. reconfigure Woman and inscribe female speakers as grammatically and rhetorically, but not necessarily visually, present, thereby frustrating patriarchal economies of mastery and possession.

由於其個人獨特的生命背景與歷程，一般咸認為美國詩人艾蜜莉．狄金森（1830-1886）詩作中，充滿了對自然世界的細膩觀察以及精神世界的嚮往和追求。這樣的看法，固然是將狄金森的詩作，置放於十九世紀英國浪漫主義、美國愛默生的超越主義等文藝思想脈絡之下，以期盼引發及獲得對其詩作更深刻的詮釋與閱讀。然而，事實上，在十九世紀這百年當中，最重大的思想衝擊，莫如英國自然學者查爾斯．達爾文（1809-1882）於一八五九年所出版的《物種源始》（另譯《物種起源》）所帶來的影響為甚。達爾文所提出不假未知力量的物種演化理論，非但已成為今日科學／生物學研究的基石，同時也廣泛影響了十九世紀大西洋兩岸的社會、文化、藝術及科學等各層面的發展與演繹。 本論文擬從十九世紀「科學－宗教」、「物質－精神」之間的拔河與辯論為經，以發掘狄金森與達爾文兩人生命歷史當中的異同及互動為緯，透過閱讀狄金森的文字書寫（包括詩作與書信等）以及達爾文《物種起源》（初版及第二版），探討兩人於「演化」觀念上的交疊與對話。基於上述討論，我以為狄金森的文字書寫，藉由普遍出現於詩作裡、無論是自然領域，抑或觀念領域上的對立主題與意象，誠然為詩人企圖揉合十九世紀科學論述、宗教爭議與個人思想於詩的寫作之中；藉由生動的表現、積極的反省與回應各種衝突與對立的實體和觀念，來展現其迥異於全然唯心或全然唯物的「演化詩學」。 本論文共分為五章。在引論中，首先藉著閱讀現今生物行為學研究，帶入狄金森詩作中的生物與科學主題，企圖將狄金森放置於十九世紀達爾文及其演化觀念的脈絡下。第一章嘗試整理十九世紀「科學－宗教」、「物質－精神」之間的辯論，來檢視狄金森與達爾文兩人生命歷史中常被忽略的相似處與交集。第二章討論狄金森詩作中的科學主題，用以凸顯詩人對當代科學思想的發展所做的積極回應。第三章先討論十九世紀「科學方法與精神」的內涵，將達爾文《物種起源》與狄金森的詩作並置閱讀，從「死亡」、「演化路徑」、「視界的物質性」三個層面來發展鋪陳詩人的「演化詩學」。最後，檢視與思考前述各篇章所帶出的議題，並援引蕭沆（E. M. Cioran）思考文字與科學時代之間的關係、諾里斯（Margot Norris）所指出達爾文作為於今難已復見的「生物中心觀」文學傳統之濫觴，以及尼采「懷疑為人的兩棲本質」，總結提出狄金森「演化詩學」成為一種文學觀的可能。 / From the traditions of English Romanticism, Emersonian Transcendentalism, and the seclusion of the poet, Emily Dickinson’s poetry has generally been read and regarded as lyrical and spiritual. In addition, the most studies of Dickinson’s poetry tend to show the idiosyncrasy and uniqueness of the poet with her observations of Nature, use of language, feminine identity, or the mixture of these three topics. However, scholarly efforts over the years also indicate that for a better and fruitful understanding and appreciation of Emily Dickinson, we have to examine and interpret her life and writings under bigger ideological and cultural contexts of the nineteenth century. Among the innovations of knowledge and conceptions in the nineteenth century, Darwin’s materialistic theories to explain the evolution of species by means of natural selection, in the eyes of the naturalist’s contemporaries and modern people, are certainly still one of the most scientifically important and ideologically controversial ideas. In this study of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, I would like to argue that as a poet of great intellect, whose poems are filled with scientific contents and observations of the natural world, Emily Dickinson not only is familiar with Darwinian biological arguments but also incorporates evolutionary ideas, not limited to Darwin’s, into her poetic writings. Moreover, as Darwinian theories have triggered the debates between science and religion, the constant reflections on religious faith are also pervasive in Dickinson’s poetry and her correspondence. Thus, instead of reading Emily Dickinson’s writings straightforwardly under the framework of Darwinism, I would like to put Darwin and Dickinson in parallel—the transatlantic intersections of their lives and their works, The Origin of Species and Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Through examining these nineteenth-century historical and cultural figures and the interactions between different currents of ideologies, we will hopefully be able to see more clearly and uncover how Dickinson renders this well-known biological theory and further develops her own poetic evolution, which surpasses the materialistic and metaphysical boundaries in the physical as well as spiritual worlds.

Ce mémoire examine les poétiques de trois poètes très différentes, mais dont les œuvres peuvent être qualifiées d'indéterminées et de radicales : Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) et Caroline Bergvall (née en 1962). Dickinson et Stein sont anglo-américaines, tandis que Bergvall est d’origine franco-norvégienne, bien qu'elle choisisse d’écrire en anglais. Toutes les trois rompent la structure syntaxique conventionnelle de l’anglais par leurs poétiques, ce qui comporte des implications esthétiques et politiques. Dans ce qui suit, j’analyse l’indétermination de leurs poétiques à partir de la notion, décrite par Lyn Hejinian, de la description comme appréhension qui présente l’écriture comme un mode de connaissance plutôt qu'un moyen d’enregistrer ce que le poète sait déjà. La temporalité de cette activité épistémologique est donc celle du présent de l’écriture, elle lui est concomitante. J'affirme que c'est cette temporalité qui, en ouvrant l’écriture aux événements imprévus, aux vicissitudes, aux hésitations, aux erreurs et torsions de l’affect, cause l'indétermination de la poésie. Dans le premier chapitre, j'envisage l'appréhension chez Gertrude Stein à travers son engagement, tout au long de sa carrière, envers « le présent continu » de l’écriture. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur le sens angoissé de l’appréhension dans la poésie de Dickinson, où le malaise, en empêchant ou en refoulant une pensée, suspend la connaissance. Le langage, sollicité par une expérience qu'il ne peut lui-même exprimer, donne forme à l'indétermination. Un dernier chapitre considère l’indétermination linguistique du texte et de l’exposition Say Parsley, dans lesquels Bergvall met en scène l’appréhension du langage : une appréhension qui survient plutôt chez le lecteur ou spectateur que chez la poète. / This thesis investigates the poetics of three very different female poets, whose works nevertheless are characterized as both indeterminate and radical: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), and Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962). Dickinson and Stein are Anglo-American, while Bergvall is of French-Norwegian descent yet writes in English, but all three fracture the conventional syntactic structures of the English language in their poetics. This move bears both aesthetic and political implications. In this thesis, I read the indeterminacies of their poetics through Lyn Hejinian’s notion of description as apprehension, which figures writing as a mode of knowing rather than a means of recording something the poet already knows. The temporality of epistemology in their work is thus the present tense of writing; thinking is concomitant with it. Following Hejinian, I contend that it is this temporality that, in making writing open to the vicissitudes, hesitations, reprisals, unexpected events, errors, and the torsions of affect, perturbs determination. The first chapter explores apprehension in Gertrude Stein’s work through her career-long commitment to the present tense of writing: perception occurs concurrently with composition. The second chapter, on Dickinson, hinges on the anxious dimension of apprehension, in which unease, in thwarting or repressing a thought, suspends its understanding. Indeterminacy figures as language claimed by an experience it can’t itself claim. Finally, the last chapter considers the linguistic indeterminacies of Say Parsley, where Bergvall stages the apprehension of language itself in using indeterminacy as a poetic strategy to determinate ends, placing the possibilities, uncertainties and responsibilities of apprehension onto the reader or spectator.

The dissertation investigates the correlations among the development of general anthologies of Canadian literature, the Canadian canon, and visions of national identity. While literature anthologies are widely used in university classrooms, the influential role of the anthology in the critical study of literature has been largely overlooked, particularly in Canada. The dissertation begins with an analysis of the stages of development of general anthologies of Canadian literature, demonstrating that there are important links between dominant critical trends and the guiding interests of the various phases of anthology development and that anthologies both reflect and participate in moulding views of the nation and its literature. Focusing then upon five eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Canadian authors, the dissertation traces their treatment in anthologies and analyzes in detail the impact of stages of anthology development upon authors’ inclusion and presentation. The reception of Frances Brooke, John Richardson, William Kirby, Susanna Moodie, and Emily Pauline Johnson over a span of nearly 90 years is examined, and points of inclusion and exclusion are scrutinized to determine links with prevailing critical interests as well as canonical status. These case studies reveal the functions of anthologies, which include recovering overlooked authors, amending past oversights, reflecting new areas of critical inquiry, and preserving the national literary tradition. Their treatment also reveals the effect of larger critical concerns, such as alignment with dominant visions of the nation, considerations of genre, and reassessments of past views. The dissertation shows that the anthology is a carefully constructed, culturally valuable work that plays an important role in literary criticism and canon formation and is a genre worthy of careful scrutiny.

本論文檢視艾蜜莉狄金生詩中的沉默不語與銷聲匿跡。第一章為現今狄金生研究的基本介紹與本論文章節編排。一個關於「我一早出發–帶著我的狗–」 (富蘭克林656) 的簡單問題燃起第二章的書寫與隨後的整本論文：在護送詩中人前往海邊之後，詩中人的狗去了哪裡? 為了獲得答案，我並列閱讀四首提到狗的詩，這四首詩分別是「我一早出發–帶著我的狗–」 (富蘭克林656)、「我的花園裡馳騁著一隻鳥兒」 (富蘭克林370)、「又一次–他的聲音在門邊–」 (富蘭克林274)、「我該如何是好–牠如此嗚咽著–」 (富蘭克林237)。檢視以上四首提到狗的詩，使我大有斬獲：首先，我發現這幾首詩的主題其實是人與人之間的關係，尤其是女性詩中人與男性的關係。再者，透過並置閱讀這四首詩，讀者能發現狗總是不在詩中人的特殊經驗之中，只在其外；這意味著狗代表詩中人的日常生活身份。第三章緣起於並置閱讀四首詩時，得到的第三個發現：詩中人與男人之間的互動通常都是靜默的，而他們的溝通方式常常只是一個眼神，而不是有聲的對話。於是第三章深入探索狄金生對沉默的依賴：「我–已–離家–多年–」 (富蘭克林440首版)、「不可能平凡–再次–我說–」 (富蘭克林388)以及「永遠在他身邊走」 (富蘭克林264)：第三章深談沉默在最刺激或痛苦的時刻中帶來的效果。第四章將沉默從人際關係拓展到天人關係： 「我聽到最遠的雷聲」 (富蘭克林1665首版)、「鳥兒從南邊報告-」 (富蘭克林780)、「在夏天比鳥兒還深遠」 (富蘭克林895首版與第四版)不只展示沉默的意義，也揭露自然對人類的不同態度。第五章則為本論文結語：我簡略整理本論文中所討論到的狄金生作品的共通點。 / This thesis delves into the silence and the unpresented in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Chapter One is the basic background introduction to the existing Dickinson scholarship and the chapter organization of the whole thesis. A very simple question regarding “I started Early - Took my Dog - ” (Fr656) ignites the writing of Chapter Two and subsequently the whole thesis: where is the speaker’s dog after he escorts the speaker to the seashore? I piece together four poems mentioning dogs to secure an answer and my choices of poems are “I started Early - Took my Dog - ” (Fr656), “Within my garden rides a bird” (Fr370), “Again - his voice is at the door” (Fr274) and “What shall I do - it whimpers so - ” (Fr237). Examining the above four poems where dogs appear produces fruitful results: firstly it leads to the finding that the theme of these poems is in fact human relationship, especially that between the female speaker and the man. Furthermore, it enables readers an interpretation that the dog signifies the speaker’s ordinary subjectivity, since the dog keeps her company only when the speaker is outside of a special experience, rather than within. Chapter Three is initiated by the third interesting discovery made during the process of reading the poems with dogs: the interaction between the speaker and the man is usually silent and their method of communication is very often just a look, instead of verbal conversations. It is Dickinson’s reliance on silence that propels my investigation of “I - Years - had been - from Home - ” (Fr440 A), “It would never be Common - more - I said - ” (Fr388) and “Forever at His side to walk” (Fr264) in Chapter Three: at the most intensely exciting or nerve-wracking moment of life lies the power of silence and its effect is discussed in detail. Chapter Four expands the scale of silence from the human relationship to the man and nature connection: poems such as “The farthest Thunder that I heard” (Fr1665A), “The Birds reported from the South-” (Fr780) and “Further in Summer than the Birds -” (Fr895A, D) demonstrate not only the signification of silence but also different attitudes the nature holds towards human beings. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this thesis, in which I summarize the common ground among all Dickinson’s works discussed in this thesis.

This dissertation engages in a critical analysis of the poetry of Emily Dickinson which, to me, suggests that the poet suffered from a type of manic-depression known specifically in psychiatric parlance as bipolar disorder. I argue that although Dickinson experienced much pain and suffering she learnt, through time, to address, understand and contain adversity - that ultimately, she transformed these experiences into the raw materials for poetic creation. Dickinson's poetic achievements are often obscured by a misunderstanding of her mental and emotional constitution. This thesis provides an alternative to the views of those commentators who maintain that Emily Dickinson was insane, neurotic or delusional. I intend, ultimately, to offer the reader a fresh insight into Emily Dickinson's poetry by reading it from the assumption that she suffered from bipolar disorder. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Ce mémoire examine les poétiques de trois poètes très différentes, mais dont les œuvres peuvent être qualifiées d'indéterminées et de radicales : Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) et Caroline Bergvall (née en 1962). Dickinson et Stein sont anglo-américaines, tandis que Bergvall est d’origine franco-norvégienne, bien qu'elle choisisse d’écrire en anglais. Toutes les trois rompent la structure syntaxique conventionnelle de l’anglais par leurs poétiques, ce qui comporte des implications esthétiques et politiques. Dans ce qui suit, j’analyse l’indétermination de leurs poétiques à partir de la notion, décrite par Lyn Hejinian, de la description comme appréhension qui présente l’écriture comme un mode de connaissance plutôt qu'un moyen d’enregistrer ce que le poète sait déjà. La temporalité de cette activité épistémologique est donc celle du présent de l’écriture, elle lui est concomitante. J'affirme que c'est cette temporalité qui, en ouvrant l’écriture aux événements imprévus, aux vicissitudes, aux hésitations, aux erreurs et torsions de l’affect, cause l'indétermination de la poésie. Dans le premier chapitre, j'envisage l'appréhension chez Gertrude Stein à travers son engagement, tout au long de sa carrière, envers « le présent continu » de l’écriture. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur le sens angoissé de l’appréhension dans la poésie de Dickinson, où le malaise, en empêchant ou en refoulant une pensée, suspend la connaissance. Le langage, sollicité par une expérience qu'il ne peut lui-même exprimer, donne forme à l'indétermination. Un dernier chapitre considère l’indétermination linguistique du texte et de l’exposition Say Parsley, dans lesquels Bergvall met en scène l’appréhension du langage : une appréhension qui survient plutôt chez le lecteur ou spectateur que chez la poète. / This thesis investigates the poetics of three very different female poets, whose works nevertheless are characterized as both indeterminate and radical: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), and Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962). Dickinson and Stein are Anglo-American, while Bergvall is of French-Norwegian descent yet writes in English, but all three fracture the conventional syntactic structures of the English language in their poetics. This move bears both aesthetic and political implications. In this thesis, I read the indeterminacies of their poetics through Lyn Hejinian’s notion of description as apprehension, which figures writing as a mode of knowing rather than a means of recording something the poet already knows. The temporality of epistemology in their work is thus the present tense of writing; thinking is concomitant with it. Following Hejinian, I contend that it is this temporality that, in making writing open to the vicissitudes, hesitations, reprisals, unexpected events, errors, and the torsions of affect, perturbs determination. The first chapter explores apprehension in Gertrude Stein’s work through her career-long commitment to the present tense of writing: perception occurs concurrently with composition. The second chapter, on Dickinson, hinges on the anxious dimension of apprehension, in which unease, in thwarting or repressing a thought, suspends its understanding. Indeterminacy figures as language claimed by an experience it can’t itself claim. Finally, the last chapter considers the linguistic indeterminacies of Say Parsley, where Bergvall stages the apprehension of language itself in using indeterminacy as a poetic strategy to determinate ends, placing the possibilities, uncertainties and responsibilities of apprehension onto the reader or spectator.

The dissertation investigates the correlations among the development of general anthologies of Canadian literature, the Canadian canon, and visions of national identity. While literature anthologies are widely used in university classrooms, the influential role of the anthology in the critical study of literature has been largely overlooked, particularly in Canada. The dissertation begins with an analysis of the stages of development of general anthologies of Canadian literature, demonstrating that there are important links between dominant critical trends and the guiding interests of the various phases of anthology development and that anthologies both reflect and participate in moulding views of the nation and its literature. Focusing then upon five eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Canadian authors, the dissertation traces their treatment in anthologies and analyzes in detail the impact of stages of anthology development upon authors’ inclusion and presentation. The reception of Frances Brooke, John Richardson, William Kirby, Susanna Moodie, and Emily Pauline Johnson over a span of nearly 90 years is examined, and points of inclusion and exclusion are scrutinized to determine links with prevailing critical interests as well as canonical status. These case studies reveal the functions of anthologies, which include recovering overlooked authors, amending past oversights, reflecting new areas of critical inquiry, and preserving the national literary tradition. Their treatment also reveals the effect of larger critical concerns, such as alignment with dominant visions of the nation, considerations of genre, and reassessments of past views. The dissertation shows that the anthology is a carefully constructed, culturally valuable work that plays an important role in literary criticism and canon formation and is a genre worthy of careful scrutiny.