The American Muse: Her Poetic Modernity And Universality

Emily Dickinson is now regarded as the precursor of American Modern Poetry and the greatest poetess in the nineteenth century of America. Her more than two thousand poems are increasingly attracting the modern readers, despite her unknown fame in her own time. The author is attempting to approach Emily Dickinson's works with the method of New Criticism, aiming to explore why Dickinson's verse could enjoy such everlasting reputation. The exploration will be done from two aspects—her artistic modernity and the thematic universality.This thesis includes five chapters.The first chapter serves as an introduction to Dickinson's life experience, the publication of her poems, the literature review of Dickinson study worldwide, the author's subject of enquiry and its significance as well as the framework of this thesis.Chapter Two mainly deals with the theoretical rationale for this thesis. Firstly it introduces the important inspiration of New Criticism—Russian Formalism. Then New Criticism is elaborated including its key concepts. T. S. Eliot's literary thoughts on modern poetry are discussed as the third part of Chapter Two. At last the author justifies the use of Formalism for the interpretation of Dickinson's poems which exemplify what the New Criticism valued "literariness" or "aesthetic value".The major concern of Chapter Three is an illustration about Dickinson's artistic modernity with the approach of New Criticism. Dickinson's poetry evinces what New Critics valued "aesthetic value". Her distinctly and uniquely original techniques that anticipate the modern use together interact with each other and help develop and highlight the universal themes of her works while forming an expressive organic whole. These techniques include the modern elements which are always the key elements of New Criticism—such as fresh and unique imagery, irregular rhyme and meter, tension, paradox and ambiguity. Besides her inventive use of these modern techniques, Dickinson's works also conform to the principles of objective correlative and impersonality proposed by T.S. Eliot and to the metaphysical and symbolic features. All of these make her innovative works modern. Chapter Four discusses the thematic universality of Dickinson's verse. By means of close reading of Dickinson's typical poems we would find that universal truth is implied in the general themes of Dickinson's poetry. More specifically, it means that the emotions, views, and experiences conveyed by her poems will find their ready echo in the mind of the readers regardless of time and space. Dickinson tried hard to distill or eliminate the inessential from experience until what was left was pure, what was left was the quality or qualities that made the thing or experience itself, which distinguished it from all other things or experiences. In this way, she achieved the absolute. Dickinson wrote about all these themes, with so great earnest, condensation and preciseness that what is revealed in her poems is not personal but universal and common. Her insight and perception of human life which can be widely applied to different cases of human experiences are so profound that modern readers find her poems enlightening and enchanting.Finally we come to the conclusion of this thesis. Through the close reading of Dickinson's works we find out that Dickinson's verse is the best evidence of the wholeness of the text or self-sufficient body valued by the New Critics, and of the literary thought that form and content are inseparable. The innovative techniques and expression of Dickinson's works anticipate the modern use of them. The profound thematic universality embodied in Dickinson's lines is the second contributing factor of her enduring literary success. In one word, her artistic modernity and profound thematic universality result in her everlasting fame and charm.