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Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde

Today, the sentimentality associated with poetry is often condescendingly dubbed in a patriarchal society as “feminine poetry.” The first women poets who dared to attempt the pen were often met with attacks on their femaleness and harsh critiques of their writing which was likened to sorcery and wit...

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Main Author: Telmissany, Aya
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Telmissany, Aya
author_browse Telmissany, Aya
author_facet Telmissany, Aya
author_sort Telmissany, Aya
collection Thesis
description Today, the sentimentality associated with poetry is often condescendingly dubbed in a patriarchal society as “feminine poetry.” The first women poets who dared to attempt the pen were often met with attacks on their femaleness and harsh critiques of their writing which was likened to sorcery and witchcraft. Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde are three American women poets who countered these attacks and turned them inside out in favor of their own womanist poetics. They wrote about experiencing the world as women and most importantly about experiencing poetry as women. What happens to poetry when a woman appropriates it as a craft? Is it altered in any fundamental way? Does it remain the same? Is it in a way recreated as a new and distinct genre? How does gender impact the poetry and poetics of Dickinson, Stein, and Lorde? and to what extent do their contributions appropriate and reshape patriarchal poetry? These are all questions which this project attempts to answer through an analysis of poetry extracted from works by these three women poets: Dickinson’s The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955), Stein’s Tender Buttons (1914) and Stein: Writings 1903-1932 (1998), and Lorde’s The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (2000). Poems are closely read and analyzed through Gilbert and Gubar’s methodology of sexual linguistics which uses aspects of the anatomy of the female body to reclaim the poetic craft for themselves and to challenge the existing sexist and patriarchal models on which the history of poetry and authorship is constructed.
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institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
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spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2939 Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde Telmissany, Aya Today, the sentimentality associated with poetry is often condescendingly dubbed in a patriarchal society as “feminine poetry.” The first women poets who dared to attempt the pen were often met with attacks on their femaleness and harsh critiques of their writing which was likened to sorcery and witchcraft. Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde are three American women poets who countered these attacks and turned them inside out in favor of their own womanist poetics. They wrote about experiencing the world as women and most importantly about experiencing poetry as women. What happens to poetry when a woman appropriates it as a craft? Is it altered in any fundamental way? Does it remain the same? Is it in a way recreated as a new and distinct genre? How does gender impact the poetry and poetics of Dickinson, Stein, and Lorde? and to what extent do their contributions appropriate and reshape patriarchal poetry? These are all questions which this project attempts to answer through an analysis of poetry extracted from works by these three women poets: Dickinson’s The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955), Stein’s Tender Buttons (1914) and Stein: Writings 1903-1932 (1998), and Lorde’s The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (2000). Poems are closely read and analyzed through Gilbert and Gubar’s methodology of sexual linguistics which uses aspects of the anatomy of the female body to reclaim the poetic craft for themselves and to challenge the existing sexist and patriarchal models on which the history of poetry and authorship is constructed. 2022-06-21T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1912 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2939/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2939/filename/3/type/additional/viewcontent/aya_telmissany_PoemsAnnex.docx Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain poetry gender women poets womanism feminism poetics Dickinson Stein Lorde American Literature Comparative Literature Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Feminist Philosophy Modern Literature Poetry Women's Studies
spellingShingle poetry
gender
women poets
womanism
feminism
poetics
Dickinson
Stein
Lorde
American Literature
Comparative Literature
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Feminist Philosophy
Modern Literature
Poetry
Women's Studies
Telmissany, Aya
Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title_full Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title_fullStr Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title_full_unstemmed Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title_short Womanist Poetics: Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Audre Lorde
title_sort womanist poetics emily dickinson gertrude stein and audre lorde
topic poetry
gender
women poets
womanism
feminism
poetics
Dickinson
Stein
Lorde
American Literature
Comparative Literature
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Feminist Philosophy
Modern Literature
Poetry
Women's Studies
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1912
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2939/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2939/filename/3/type/additional/viewcontent/aya_telmissany_PoemsAnnex.docx
work_keys_str_mv AT telmissanyaya womanistpoeticsemilydickinsongertrudesteinandaudrelorde