This week I thought I would highlight the various emails I get from Academia.edu about research papers related to the works of Emily Dickinson. My plog (poetry blog) post from Monday, 9/23, about a paper entitled “Portrait or Picture: Some Thoughts on a Dickinsonian Conundrum” is HERE.
For today:
About ten days ago I received an email about a paper by Harrison F. Dietzman entitled “‘FAITH’ IS A FINE INVENTION”: EMILY DICKINSON’S CRITIQUE OF EMPIRICISM.
The title of the paper references a poem Dickinson wrote in 1861, and there are minor differences between the versions that appear in the Johnson and Franklin editions of her poetry because she herself included two slightly different versions of this poem in her self-bound fascicles along with a third variation she wrote in a thank you letter sent to Samuel Bowles.
For today:
About ten days ago I received an email about a paper by Harrison F. Dietzman entitled “‘FAITH’ IS A FINE INVENTION”: EMILY DICKINSON’S CRITIQUE OF EMPIRICISM.
The title of the paper references a poem Dickinson wrote in 1861, and there are minor differences between the versions that appear in the Johnson and Franklin editions of her poetry because she herself included two slightly different versions of this poem in her self-bound fascicles along with a third variation she wrote in a thank you letter sent to Samuel Bowles.
That letter can be found HERE -- and in Dickinson's own handwriting, HERE.
Here’s how the paper on Academia.edu begins:
“In opposition to those who might read Emily Dickinson’s opus as emblematic of nineteenth-century empiricism, or at least the work of a poet enthralled with and enchanted by modern science, a close examination of Dickinson’s poems demonstrates her attention to the constructedness of empirical science. The roots of Dickinson’s examination of empiricism lies in her exploration of selfhood and the relationship between experience and knowledge. As such, Dickinson’s critique of empiricism is contained within a critique of secularizing visions of human autonomy.”
| Interestingly, the first poem discussed in the paper is NOT “‘Faith” is a fine invention,” but “The Soul has bandaged moments.” Here’s how that poem is introduced in the paper: Dickinson’s interrogation of empiricism emerges from her suspicion of the self-ordered, self-disciplined, self-created, autonomous, dualist subject who occupies the core of Enlightenment and much of U. S. Protestant and secular ideology. Her poetry’s questioning of this autonomous self takes on many forms, but perhaps the most poignant is the gothic horror of ‘The Soul has bandaged moments,’ in which the Soul finds itself at the mercy of ‘Fright,’ a ‘Goblin,’ and ‘The Horror.’” If you have further interest in reading the entire paper, you can find it HERE. |  |
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