Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Colby Access Only)

Department

Colby College. English Dept.

Advisor(s)

Elizabeth Sagaser

Second Advisor

Kimberly Besio

Abstract

The goal of this project is to compare the ways in which Emily Dickinson (1830 -1886) and Wu Zao (1799-1863), two female poets from America and China, respectively, create a unique female poetic voice with respect to and despite the cultural-specific challenges posed by their literary traditions. I will focus on lyric poetry, a genre that highlights the performative in both its structures and use of language as well as in its demands of engagement on the reader. Both Dickinson and Wu respond to the ideological challenges they face as women poets by expressing their temperaments in their lyric poems through their creative and performative use of diction and other literary devices.

Comments

Full-text download restricted to Colby College campus only.

Keywords

Dickinson, Lyric, Gender, Poetry, China, America

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