Feminine Consciousness In Emily Dickinson's Nature Poems

As a famous American poetess of the 19th century, Emily Dickinson is a unique and unprecedented poet in more than one way. Her reclusive life, highly original poetic strategy, striking themes about love and death and large amount of nature poems are obtaining vigorous scholarly inquiry and public interest. Among her 1775 poems, there are more than 500 pieces about nature, which takes up almost 1/3 of the totality. This thesis mainly discusses the feminine consciousness awakened in Dickinson's nature poems.Two theories are applied in this thesis to analyze the feminine consciousness in Dickinson's poems:Freud's bisexuality theory and feminist theories. This thesis restates her feminine consciousness from a completely new angle. With the aid of bisexuality theory, Emily Dickinson establishes her "Female Self' and "Male other" in order to shatter the spiritual fetters made by men.Chapter one is a general introduction to Emily Dickinson, both as a woman and as a poet. Emily Dickinson stays in the house for most time of her life, but her meditation of the world never gets trapped. Then this chapter gives an introduction to Emily Dickinson's nature poems and feminine consciousness, and shows the feasibility in analyzing the feminine consciousness in Emily Dickinson's nature poems.Chapter Two is Literature Review. After her death, Emily Dickinson's works received more and more attention from critics. The most influential critics and their research on Emily Dickinson are introduced in this chapter.Chapter Three, Four and Five analyzes Dickinson's feminine consciousness in her nature poems from three aspects:the poetic themes, Dickinson's performances of gender and language styles. For each aspect, large amount of poems are analyzed in order to give a detailed and firm support to the author's viewpoint. The author believes that Dickinson's unique way of writing her poems is the outcry of her inner world, showing her desire to be equal to man in the patriarchal society. In many of her poems, the female turn out from passive receivers into active executors. Chapter Four is the concluding part of the thesis, which sums up Dickinson's feminine consciousness shown in poetic themes, her performances of gender as well as the unique language styles.