Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry Research Articles

"Will You Ignore My Sex?": Emily Dickinson's 1862 Letters to T. W. Higginson Revisited

Drawing insights from critical studies of gender and nineteenth-century American women's poetry, this essay examines the letters sent from Dickinson to Higginson in 1862 in order to alert readers to hear the implicit plea in these often abrupt, imperative, elliptical, and cryptic documents: "Will you ignore my sex?". At the same time, Wang shows that Dickinson's enclosure of her name in a smaller envelope might be read as a miniature drama directed by the poet that manipulates the mode of reading and the affective experience and critical reception of her poems. Wang suggests that Dickinson mimics in miniature the historical situation of the woman writer's publishing in anonymity, in which sexual identity was first hidden, evaded, and deferred in its presentation. No matter how naïve and shy, or deliberate and pretentious, such a plea might seem to her recipient or to later readers, she argues that the request should probably be read as a sincere statement: "Please regard me as a poet instead of a lady poet." Dickinson's playful indirection reveals the anxiety of the female poet, which should not be ignored by readers of any period. Dickinson's dramatizing devices and metaphorical use of male muses to propel her own volcanic power, combined with pervasive unsexing practices in Dickinson's poetry more generally, make her legacy ambiguous for later female writers; it also complicates critical attempts to construct a female literary tradition.

From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry; Managing Literacy, Mothering America: Women's Narratives on Reading and Writing in the Nineteenth Century.

Book Review| March 01 2006 From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry; Managing Literacy, Mothering America: Women's Narratives on Reading and Writing in the Nineteenth Century. From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry. By Mary Loeffelholz. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. 2004. xi, 275 pp. Cloth, $65.00; paper, $24.95.Managing Literacy, Mothering America: Women's Narratives on Reading and Writing in the Nineteenth Century. By Sarah Robbins. Pittsburgh.: Univ. of Pittsburg Press. 2004. ix, 326 pp. $39.95. Carolyn Sorisio Carolyn Sorisio Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2006) 78 (1): 182–185. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-78-1-182 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Carolyn Sorisio; From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry; Managing Literacy, Mothering America: Women's Narratives on Reading and Writing in the Nineteenth Century.. American Literature 1 March 2006; 78 (1): 182–185. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-78-1-182 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. 2006 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry (review)

From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry (review)

Women's Bibles: Biblical Interpretation in Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry

Women's Bibles: Biblical Interpretation in Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry