Emily Dickinson A Celebration for Readers

The focus of this title, first published in 1989, begins with Dickinson’s poems themselves and the ways in which we read them. There are three readings for each of the six poems under consideration that are both complementary and provocative. The selected poems show Dickinson speaking of herself in increasingly wider relationships – to love, the outside world, death and eternity – and are grouped together to reveal her overlapping attitudes and feelings. Other topics discussed range from general epistemological and critical considerations to the poet’s self-identification and the process of reading her poetry as a feminist critic. This title will be of interest to students of literature.

Introduction Suzanne Juhasz and Cristanne Miller 1. Locating a Feminist Critical Practice: Between the Kingdom and the Glory Cheryl Walker 2. Workshop One: Poem 271, "A solemn thing – it was – I said" Marcia Falk, Barbara Mossberg and Maurya Simon 3. Workshop Two: Poem 315, "He fumbles at your Soul" Robin Riley Fast, Suzanne Juhasz and Ellin Ringler-Henderson 4. Workshop Three: Poem 656, "The – name of it – is ‘Autumn’" Joanne Feit Diehl and Barbara Packer 5. Workshop Four: Poem 754, "My Life has stood – a Loaded Gun" Joanne Dobson, Lillian Faderman and Ellin Ringer-Henderson 6. Workshop Five: Poem 1581, "The farthest Thunder that I heard" Marcia Falk and Barbara Packer 7. Workshop Six: Poem 1651, "A Word made Flesh is seldom" Joanne Feit Diehl, Christine Miller and Maurya Simon 8. Plenary Panel, Reading the Poems: Three Accounts Robin Riley Fast, Suzanne Juhasz and Cristanne Miller 9. Plenary Panel: Two Views of the Poet Joanne Dobson and Barbara Mossberg