The Existentialist Probe Into The Reasons Of Emily Dickinson’s Diminution Of Writing Activities After American Civil War

Emily Dickinson is doubtlessly the most outstanding woman poet in American literary history. Although she has remained almost unpublished during her lifetime, her extraordinary poems and the unique individual personality manifested in her poetry wins her a large readership and stimulates multiple interpretations in academia. Living a mostly secluded life, Dickinson never married and selected writing poems as her spiritual company.Her influence started from the late 19th century and has been increasing over the time. In overseas countries, there have been a variety of critical approaches to Dickinson ever since the first publication of Dickinson’s poems during her lifetime. Most critics believe poetry alone is not sufficient to Dickinson, and they have been seeking things outside poetry that are important to the poet. That Civil War’s influence on Emily Dickinson is no longer a dispute overseas now, criticism on her Civil War poems focuses on the analysis of the theme "death", feminism, psychoanalysis, religion and interdisciplinary readings. In China, few scholars talk about Emily Dickinson’s relationship with American Civil War.Existentialism is a philosophical movement of the 20th century and it focuses its attention on the actual human existence and individual freedom, which undoubtedly is a reflection of the specific historical background. Brought about during the two World Wars when great harm came to people around the world, thus Existentialism naturally repeats its historical status and could be applied to Civil War’s conditions. In addition, since those existentialists who publicize the existentialism are mostly great writers too, they created many art forms such as literature and movie.Through the study based on the theories of Sartre’s existentialism, the author of this dissertation contends it is Dickinson’s experiences during Civil War that lessen her writing afterwards. And instead of retreat, the reduction of writing actually represents her liberation and relief after Dickinson’s exploration on the sense of life. In this paper, the author will clearly introduce Sartre’s Existentialism, particularly his three existentialist principles, and on the basis of these principles, selected poems and letters of Emily Dickinson will be properly analyzed by close reading, then other readers can better appreciate her works.