| American poetess Emily Dickinson lived in a time where males dominated almost the whole society and females’rights and positions were marginalized. Dickinson gave an account to the request of gender equality in her letters and poems facing with unbalanced relation between males and females. With the in-depth study on Dickinson, researches about poetess’value initiated. This thesis tries to discuss Dickinson’s views of gender with the gender theory study and Queer study, to probe into social activities and analyze her letters and poems.The introduction part primarily narrates Dickinson’s queer behaviors in the daily life and the unique techniques to compose poems then put forward with the thought that homosexual inclination between poetess and her sister-in-law Susan during their communication is a kind of rebellion against the prejudices towards females. As gender theory holds, females play the roles of exploring the difference between males and females, challenging definitions of traditional views of gender endows the social gender, biological gender and the features of gender and providing new methods to gender identification. As the member of weak group, Dickinson showed complex relations during communication with females mainly referring to females’self and males’self. Meanwhile, she expressed the strong side in the discourses with males and came up with rebellion against patriarchal society. It is difficult for the researches aboard on Dickinson’s views of gender to reach an agreement though the relative study had begun for a long time. Dickinson study in China started from the eighties of last century and enters into a relatively prosperous period at present; nevertheless research on poetess’s views of gender is rarely touched. This thesis holds that Dickinson’s sexual inclinations are not only the reflections of her rebellion against patriarchal world, but also are the pursuit of sharing equal rights with males.In the first chapter, the thesis recounts Dickinson’s performances in the communication with females. She was not satisfied with females’submission to males and gave requests at displaying females’strong parts and struggling for their independence. Naturally, females possess the inborn features but socially they develop some males’ qualities in the course of social activities. The female-self and male-self in her poems reflected Dickinson’s appeal of pursuing gender equality. In the complex relations of Dickinson and her sister-in-law Susan, they altered their roles between in male-self and female-self.The second chapter of this thesis mainly narrates Dickinson’s performances in the communication with males. As a female-poet, Dickinson’s techniques to create poems were distinct from traditional literature trend which initiated a new style of her own, presented females’rebellion against males’writing and enriched the connotations of females’writing. Dickinson appealed for gender equality both in social and family parts. No matter the discourses with her father Edward and her old brother Austin or with her beloved lawyer Lord, even the superior God, she insisted on the females’ independence and equal rights instead of submission towards males.Chapter three analyzes the influential factors upon Dickinson’s views of gender. From some books she red, Dickinson was affected so deep by those female-writers like Gorge Eliot, Bronte sisters and Ms. Browning and those excellent characters in their works that she demanded female’s independence like them. Owing to the strict tradition of Puritanism and people’s absolute piousness to God, females’qualities and social positions were suppressed. Females were of tremendous importance in Civil War and the emancipation of slavery. However, it was hard for females to participate into social activities for achievements of their value due to most females were confined in the domestic businesses. All these factors above exert influences upon Dickinson’s views of gender. |
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