Emily Dickinson and philosophy PDF
Preview Emily Dickinson and philosophy
more information – www.cambridge.org/9781107029415 EMILY DICKINSON AND PHILOSOPHY EmilyDickinson’spoetryisdeeplyphilosophical.Recognizingthat conventionallanguagelimitedherthoughtandwriting,Dickinson creatednewpoeticformstopursuethemoralandintellectualissues thatmatteredmosttoher.ThiscollectionsituatesDickinsonwithin the rapidly evolving intellectual culture of her time and explores the degree to which her groundbreaking poetry anticipated trends in twentieth-century thought. Essays aim to clarify the ideas at stake in Dickinson’s poems by reading them in the context of one ormorerelevantphilosophers,includingnear-contemporariessuch asNietzsche,Kierkegaard,andHegel,andlaterphilosopherswhose methods are implied in her poetry, including Levinas, Sartre, and Heidegger.TheDickinsonwhoemergesisacurious,open-minded interpreterofhowhumanbeingsmakesenseoftheworld–onefor whompoetryisacomponentofalifelongphilosophicalproject. jed deppman is the Irvin E. Houck Associate Professor in the HumanitiesatOberlinCollege. marianne noble is Associate Professor of Literature at American University. garyleestonumistheOviattProfessorintheEnglishDepartment ofCaseWesternReserveUniversity. EMILY DICKINSON AND PHILOSOPHY edited by JED DEPPMAN OberlinCollege MARIANNE NOBLE AmericanUniversity GARY LEE STONUM CaseWesternReserveUniversity 32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013–2473,usa CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107029415 ©CambridgeUniversityPress2013 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2013 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData EmilyDickinsonandphilosophy/[editedby] JedDeppman,OberlinCollege,MarianneNoble,AmericanUniversity,GaryLeeStonum, CaseWesternReserveUniversity. pages cm isbn978-1-107-02941-5(hardback) 1. Dickinson,Emily,1830–1886–Criticismandinterpretation. 2. Philosophyin literature. I. Noble,Marianne,1968–editorofcompilation. II. Deppman,Jed,editor ofcompilation. III. Stonum,GaryLee,editorofcompilation. ps1541.z5e3945 2013 8110.4–dc23 2012041991 isbn978-1-107-02941-5Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof urlsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. IthankthepublishersandthetrusteesofAmherstCollegeforpermissiontoreprintfrom ThePoemsofEmilyDickinson,editedbyRalphW.Franklin,Cambridge,Massachusetts: TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress,Copyright©1998,1999bythePresident andFellowsofHarvardCollege.Copyright©1951,1955,1979,1983bythePresident andFellowsofHarvardCollege. IthankthepublishersforpermissiontoreprintfromTheLettersofEmilyDickinson, editedbyThomasH.Johnson,Cambridge,Massachusetts:TheBelknapPressofHarvard UniversityPress,Copyright©1958,1986,ThePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege; 1914,1924,1932,1942byMarthaDickinsonBianchi;1952byAlfredLeeteHampson;1960 byMaryL.Hampson. Contents Introduction page 1 JedDeppman,MarianneNoble,andGaryLeeStonum i.dickinson and the philosophy of her time 1. EmilyDickinson:AnatomistoftheMind 13 MichaelKearns 2. Dickinson,Hume,andtheCommonSenseLegacy 30 MelanieHubbard 3. OutgrowingGenesis?Dickinson,Darwin,andtheHigher Criticism 47 JaneDonahueEberwein 4. TouchingtheWounds:DickinsonandChristology 68 LindaFreedman 5. AgainstMastery:DickinsonContraHegelandSchlegel 85 DanielFineman 6. “PerfectfromthePod”:InstantLearninginDickinsonand Kierkegaard 105 JimvonderHeydt ii.dickinson and modern philosophy 7. TruthandLieinEmilyDickinsonandFriedrichNietzsche 131 ShiraWolosky 8. EmilyDickinson,Pragmatism,andtheConquestsofMind 151 RenéeTursi v vi Contents 9. DickinsonandSartreonFacingtheBrutalityofBruteExistence 175 FarhangErfani 10. DickinsononPerceptionandConsciousness:ADialoguewith MauriceMerleau-Ponty 188 MarianneNoble 11. TheInfiniteinPerson:LevinasandDickinson 207 MeganCraig 12. AstonishedThinking:DickinsonandHeidegger 227 JedDeppman Bibliography 249 CitationIndex 259 SubjectIndex 262 Introduction dickinson, poetry, and philosophy [Emily] had to think – she was the only one of us who had that to do. Fatherbelieved;andmotherloved;andAustinhadAmherst;andIhadthe familytotakecareof. LaviniaDickinson,EmilyDickinson’sHome Lavinia Dickinson understood an important fact about her sister Emily: thatshewasaseriousthinker.Herlife’swork,thepassionthatkeptherat herdesklateatnight,involvedthinkingaboutlargequestions:Whatarethe chances for immortality given that the body seems essential to conscious- ness? What makes a poem or anything else “beautiful”? How does being awareofdeathshapehowwechoosehowtolive?Whyareweexhilaratedor appalledbynature?Dickinsonusedpoetrytothinksuchproblemsthrough. To understand her poetry as a philosophical practice challenges a bifurcation that may seem elemental, it is of such long standing in our culture. Accounts differ, but perhaps themost common grand narrative is that philosophy took an early lead. In Act One, the story goes, Plato banished poets from his republic and Socrates called them “light and winged and holy” things, arguing that the poet “has no ability to create untilhehasbeeninspiredandisoutofhissenses,andreasonisnolongerin him”(Ion,Dialogues,11).Likethe“Corybanticrevelerswhentheydance,” poets “are not in their right mind when they compose ... ” (11). Act Two recountsspiriteddefensesofpoetsandpoetrybyPhilipSydneyandothers who point up the value to human life of poetic specialties: moods, emo- tions, creativity, inspiration, fiction, world-creation, and entertainment. Showcasing attempts to decide the winner, Act Three often emphasizes fence-sitters and synthesizers. The Christian Platonist Marsilio Ficino explains to his Renaissance companions that since the “rational soul” often falls “into the body” and to sleep, the “poetic frenzy” is necessary to awaken it. Socrates was right, but so was Sidney: poetry is frenzy but it is 1 2 Introduction also necessary, even primary, because it enables the soul to move from “thebody’ssleeptothemind’svigilance”(197,201).Intheend,ifwearestill inthegrandmodewecansaythatthisdialecticalmetanarrativehasalways accompanied Western culture, even helped defined it, right down to our everydaydistinctionsbetweenthoughtandfeeling,reasonandemotion. If we extract a comparison between philosophy and poetry from Emily Dickinson’s letters and poems then we must conclude that she preferred poetry. In various ways she celebrated poets as magicians or divinities who distill“amazingsense”from“ordinarymeanings”anddenigratedphilosophy asineffectiveorirrelevantbeforetherealproblemsofexistence.Simplenatural experiences were usually enough for her to make the point: the Moon is upheld“inrollingAir”by“finerGravitations−/ThanbindPhilosopher–” andalthoughthe“rainbownevertellsme/Thatgustandstormareby,”itis nonetheless “more convincing / Than Philosophy” (Fr593B, Fr76). By con- trast the high status of poets was for Dickinson never in doubt: “I reckon − WhenIcountatall−/First−Poets−ThentheSun−/ThenSummer−Then theHeavenofGod−/Andthen−theListisdone–”(Fr533). ButwhileDickinsonrankedpoetryaboveprose,theoppositionbetween poetryandphilosophywasnotimportanttoher.Shehabituallyreferredto writing,herownandothers’,as“thought,”−sheneverusedtheword“lyric” atall−andwasanearly,enthusiastic,andultimatelylifelongreaderofboth poetry and philosophy. In school, philosophy and poetry were often pre- sentedasmakingcommoncause,andsheandhercontemporariescarefully parsedsuchtextsasEdwardYoung’sNightThoughts,aphilosophicalpoem introduced by the author as “moral reflections.” This poem of “thoughts” invokesSocrates(“hewhowoo’dfromheaven/Philosophythefair,todwell with men”) and ultimately inspired both Goethe’s Sturm und Drang literatureandEdmundBurke’sphilosophicalwritingsonthesublime. When philosophy was presented as a formal discipline, she enjoyed it. “Ihavefourstudies,”sheeffusedatfifteentoherfriendAbiahRootabout her “fine school,” the Amherst Academy: “They are Mental Philosophy, Geology,Latin,andBotany”(L6).Throughouthighschoolandheryearat Mary Lyons’s seminary at Mt. Holyoke, where Isaac Watts’s On the Improvement of the Mind was a requirement for matriculation, she was constantly exposed to, and tested on, philosophical texts and ideas. Long after her school days, she remained a voracious reader and, thanks to her proximity to Amherst College, remained in regular contact with the phi- losophy faculty and their families, as well as with her brother and other friendswhoattendedthecollege.Inshort,sheacquiredasolideducationin bothpoetryandphilosophyanduseditthroughoutherlife.
The list of books you might like
