Dickinson unbound : paper, process, poetics

224 Pages·2012·2.638 MB·English

by  Socarides, Alexandra

Dickinson Unbound
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Dickinson Unbound
Paper, Process, Poetics
xwx
Alexandra Socarides

1
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitt ed, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Material from Th e Poems of Emily Dickinson reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of
Amherst College. Th e Poems of Emily Dickinson , edited by Ralph Franklin, Cambridge, Mass.: Th e Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Material from Th e Lett ers of Emily Dickinson reprinted by permission of the publishers.
Th e Lett ers of Emily Dickinson , Th omas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: Th e Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958, 1986 by Th e President and Fellows of
Harvard College; 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi;
1952 by Alfred Leete Hampson; 1960 by Mary L. Hampson.
“Rethinking the Fascicles: Dickinson’s Writing, Copying, and Binding Practices”
was fi rst published in E mily Dickinson Journal 15, no. 2 (2006): 69–94.
Reprinted with permission by Th e Johns Hopkins University Press.
“Th e Poetics of Interruption: Dickinson, Death, and the Fascicles” was fi rst published in
A Companion to Emily Dickinson , ed. Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeff elholz. Malden,
MA: Blackwell (2008): 309–333. Reprinted with permission by Blackwell Publishing.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Socarides, Alexandra.
Dickinson unbound : paper, process, poetics / Alexandra Socarides.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-985808-8 (cloth : acid-free paper)
1. Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PS1541.Z5S675 2012
811 ′ .4—dc23 2011043282
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 3
1. Dickinson’s Sheets 2 0
2. Epistolary Practices and the Problem of Genre 4 9
3. Sewing the Fascicles: Elegy, Consolation, and the Poetics
of Interruption 7 8
4. Dickinson’s “Sets” and the Rejection of Sequence 105
5. Methods of Unmaking: Dickinson’s Late Draft s,
Scraps, and Fragments 130
Aft erword 168
Notes 173
Bibliography 193
Poems Referenced 199
Index 203

( v )
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the many archives and special collections that provided me with
access to their holdings, with time amongst their materials, and in some cases, with
fi nancial support, without which this book would not have been possible. To Mike
Kelly, Margaret Dakin, Peter Nelson, Mariah Sakrejda-Leavitt , and Daria D’Arienzo
at the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections; to Leslie Morris at the
Houghton Library; to Sean Casey and Eric Fraser at the Boston Public Library Rare
Books and Manuscripts Department; and to Caroline Sloat, Jaclyn Penny, Th omas
Knoles, and the family of Stephen Botein at the American Antiquarian Society.
Th anks, also, to each of these archives for providing me with the fantastic images
that appear in this book, and to Dinah Fried for making the perfect illustration of
how Dickinson made her fascicles. Th is project has been funded by many sources
over the years, and I am indebted to the people at institutions (both large and small)
who read my many proposals and thought that such a book was worth their sup-
port. Th anks to Rutgers University for the Kalstone Grant, a Mellon Travel Grant,
and a Mellon Summer Seminar Grant; to the Emily Dickinson International So-
ciety for a Graduate Research Fellowship and the Scholar in Amherst Award; to the
National Humanities Seminar for a spot in Sharon Cameron’s 2008 Summer Lit-
erary Institute on Dickinson; and to the University of Missouri’s Research Council,
Research Board, and Center for Arts and Humanities. An earlier version of part of
Chapter 1 appeared in the E mily Dickinson Journal and an earlier version of part of
Chapter 3 appeared in A Companion to Emily Dickinson . I am grateful to Johns Hop-
kins University Press and Blackwell Publishing for giving me permission to reprint
them here; thanks also to the editors—Cristanne Miller, Martha Nell Smith, and
Mary Loeff elholz—for including my work in these publications. Lastly, I am enor-
mously lucky to have had this book fall into the hands of Brendan O’Neill at Oxford
University Press; he took care of it (and me) at every stage and secured three fantas-
tic anonymous readers, each of whom saw what I was trying to do and helped me to
do it bett er.
If the institutions and funding sources made the research possible, it was the
people who surrounded me that made the writing of this book possible. For early
inspiration in the ways of reading poetry, I would like to thank Robert Farnsworth,
Marie Howe, and Suzanne Hoover. Th ey each made it so that by the time I arrived
at graduate school, I already knew how to eat, sleep, and breath the poems I loved.
( vii )
( viii ) Acknowledgments
At Rutgers University, I had the privilege of learning from a wonderful assortment
of scholars, including and in particular, Carolyn Williams, Michael McKeon,
Michael Warner, Myra Jehlen, Colin Jager, and Richard Miller. Alison Shonkwiler,
Kristie Allen, and Sunny Stalter-Pace read the earliest draft s, off ered incisive feed-
back, and generally made writing a dissertation a whole lot less painful. Since
arriving at the University of Missouri, I have had the pleasure of working in an
enormously supportive and stimulating environment. Th anks, in particular, to Pat
Okker, John Evelev, Tom Quirk, Noah Heringman, and Andy Hoberek, who have
off ered invaluable guidance along the way. I couldn’t ask for a bett er writing group
than that which is composed of Anne Myers and Frances Dickey. I am indebted
to the graduate students who took my Dickinson seminar for talking Dickinson
with me during the fi nal stages of my writing, and to Mike Horton for crucial re-
search assistance. In recent years I have come to know a fantastic assortment of
nineteenth-century Americanists, many of whom have off ered feedback, discus-
sion, and criticism on this project, as well as their friendship. I am grateful to the
members of the Midwest Nineteenth Century Americanist Group—especially
Melissa Homestead, Susan Harris, Laura Mielke, and Stephanie Fitzgerald—for
commenting on the fi rst chapter; to Faith Barrett , Th eresa Strouth Gaul, Desirée
Henderson, Jennifer Putzi, and Elizabeth Stockton for taking me under their wings
and being the best interlocutors imaginable; to Chris Lukasik for being the most
demanding of readers; and to Vivian Pollak for her curiosity and conversation at a
crucial stage of my writing.
Th roughout, I have been lucky enough to be guided by three amazing mentors,
each of whose scholarship and spirit are visible on every page. To Martha Nell
Smith, for modeling how to be, in equal parts, excited about what I think and
humble to the work that surrounds me. To Virginia Jackson, for forcing me to
rethink everything I knew and start all over again. And to Meredith McGill, for
over a decade of guidance, mentorship, and friendship. When I tell my students
that the most important decision they make in graduate school is choosing an
excellent advisor, I speak from experience. Th anks to each of you for taking me
on before I had anything to show for myself and for continuing to be there long
aft er I should have fi gured it all out for myself. I hope these pages make each of
you proud.
And now to my friends and loved ones: Th anks for tolerating my constant need
to go home to write my book and for asking about how it was going even when you
weren’t totally sure what I was writing about. Nothing would be possible without
the love and friendship of Bibi Prival, Liz Mayer, Debbie Neft , Jessica Morowitz,
Katie Cushmore, Zanny Wood, Kathy Lubey, Joanna Luloff , Amanda Hinnant, and
Sheri Harrison. Th anks to Lynn Duryee for reading this book in its entirety, to Jer-
emy Faro for helping me come up with a title, and to Meredith Martin for helping
it fi nd a home.
Lastly, I want to acknowledge my family. To my mother, Barbara Bonner, for in-
stilling in me early an interest in art, in how artists work, and in all kinds of beauty;
Acknowledgments ( ix )
to my brothers—Charlie Socarides, Richard Socarides, and Bob Stolorow—each
of whose passion for and dedication to what they do inspires me; and to my ex-
tended family—Claudia Rosen, Lisa Rudikoff , Don Fried, and Vera Rosen—for
having no obligation to love me and for doing so anyway. In memory of my sister,
Dede Socarides Stolorow, who I have come to learn is present in all I do. To Gabe
Fried, who gave me Dickinson’s M anuscript Books for my twenty-fourth birthday,
long before I knew I would ever write a book about them, and who, years later, read
all 1,789 poems out loud with me, just to make sure I really loved them. And lastly,
to Archer and Nate (my heart and my soul), who were both born during the writing
of this book: boundless gratitude.