Public and Private in Dickinson’s War Poetry

Shira Wolosky

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay “The Poet,” declared that “the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common wealth.” Within the norms of the nineteenth century, this would seem to relegate women poets to the status of “par-tial men.” In the much accepted division of life into separate spheres, women were barred access to the “common wealth” as public space. Instead, women remained officially restricted to the domestic sphere-what Tocqueville describes as “the narrow cir-cle of domestic interests and duties”-while men found their places in the “public” world.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Historical Guide to Emily Dickinson
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages103-132
Number of pages30
ISBN (Electronic)9780197724484
ISBN (Print)9780195151343
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Keywords

  • century
  • Emerson
  • restricted
  • sphere
  • women

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