Dual Identity Construction:Female Poet

Emily Dickinson is a distinctive and pioneering writer in19th century American literary history. Possessing a poetical talent as great as her contemporary poet Walt Whitman, Dickinson did not earn much fame and publicity during her life time. She led a fairly mysterious reclusive life with no marriage and little social contacts. Due to the unusual feeling and deep insight of life expressed in it, Dickinson’s poetry is not only extremely popular with readers all over the world but also a heated research spot in academic circles as well. Since the first publication of Dickinson’s poem collection in1890, critics have analyzed her works from different perspectives such as life research, image theory, new criticism, structuralism, cultural criticism, psychological analysis, feminism, the reader response theory, deconstruction, etc.Based on the theories of feminist literary criticism and the detailed analysis of some of Dickinson’s poems, the author of this thesis attempts to explore how Emily Dickinson had challenged the patriarchal values in life and patriarchal literary standards in poetry and finally successfully constructed her female poet identity when facing identity anxiety and even identity crisis caused by the conflict between her female gender and poetic ideal.To begin with, the thesis analyzes the identity problems Dickinson had faced and the causes of these problems, which have revealed a variety of repression women suffered in the patriarchal society. The19th century America was a man-dominated society with traditional metaphysical logo-centrism and rigid men and women binary opposition prevailing the country. All these made Dickinson who possessed a rebellious spirit and a high talent realized that it was so hard for a woman in the patriarchal society to develop self potentiality and so lonely for her to pursue her poetical ideal. Therefore, how to reconcile the conflict between the stereotyped identity that the patriarchal society had imposed on women and achieve self development became an important issue Dickinson could not avoid. The thesis then continues with the analysis of the specific strategies Dickinson had adopted in order to settle such identity problems. For one thing, Dickinson rejected the traditional patriarchal values and overturned the traditional submissive female images through actively designing her own life path such as deviation from the repressive and dominant God Father, denial of earthly husband-first marriage and living in seclusion. Moreover, various independent and rebellious female images and female experiences presented in her poems reveal her reconstruction of the female identity. For another, Dickinson was persistently pursuing her poetical ideal all her life. Using her unique and profound poetry as a sharp weapon, Dickinson bravely challenged the traditional patriarchal literary standards and aesthetics; overcame "anxiety of authorship" and eventually constructed her identity as a poet. In the end, the thesis explores the relationship between these two identity constructions. The gender discrimination and oppression female suffered in reality impelled Dickinson writing poetry to defy authority and create new female images. It can be said that female identity is one of her powerful motivations to write poetry.In reverse, Dickinson’s poetical identity is an expression of her acquisition of discourse power as a female. The success of Dickinson’s dual identity construction not only negates the irrelevant or even opposite split relation of the two identities in the patriarchal context, but also proves that the relationship between them can actually be interactive and harmonious.By analyzing Dickinson’s construction of her female identity and poet’s identity, the thesis provides a new perspective for researches of Emily Dickinson and some help for readers to deeply understand Dickinson’s poems as well.