Dickinson at Home | The Poetry of Emily Dickinson | Dr. Abigail Rawleigh 

While we’ve spent a lot of time in this course addressing the myth of Emily Dickinson as an isolated genius, it is indeed true that she spent most of her time at home. In this lecture, we’ll explore the gendered expectations that emerged out of and were reinforced by literature of the “Cult of Domesticity,” considering how Dickinson’s poetry responds to questions of gender, domesticity, and interiority (in both senses of the word!) at home.
Guiding question(s): How does Dickinson engage with gendered expectations in her 19th-century American context? What is the relationship between private and public, the self and society in Dickinson’s poetry?
Today's readings:
14 "One sister have I in our house"
219 "She sweeps with many-colored Brooms-"
289 "I know some lonely Houses off the Road"
443 "I tie my Hat - I crease my Shawl"
617 "Don't put up my Thread and Needle -"
649 "Her Sweet turn to leave the Homestead"
670 "One need not be a chamber - to be Haunted"
1078 "The Bustle in a House"
(Numbering from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson)
Read ahead for next week: abigailrawleig...