Tradition And Subversion:Performativity Of Gender In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Emily Dickinson is not only one of the greatest poets in American literature but also a poet who enjoys world-wide fame.She took poetry writing as the greatest fun in her life,but rarely published any of them.Her poems are favored by readers and have intrigued the interest of a large number of critics and scholars.The researches have been done on her poetic themes and artistic features from different perspectives like multiple themes,artistic style and Freudian psychoanalysis etc.This thesis,in light of Butler's theory of gender performativity,attempts to analyze the tradition and subversion in Dickinson's gender views,on the base of which it also explores the multiple factors that contribute to the formation of her gender views.The traditionalism in Dickinson's gender views lies in the binary opposition.Dickinson's depiction of inequality in love,three types of brides and wife and husband relationship,reveals the constraints of traditional women identities.The subversion in Dickinson's gender views is revealed in the plural gender expressions-the discontentment with traditional gender differences,'non-gendered presence,and the infusion of powerful male image in women as questioning the conventional notion of "femininity".Though Dickinson gives up normal gender identities that most women will live through their life,she constructed these gender identities in her poetry.The formation of Dickinson's gender views is attributed to two aspects of influences-the personal,family and social factors in her early life as well as her reclusive lifestyle.This study on both the tradition and the subversion in Dickinson's gender views from the perspective of Butler's gender theory will enrich the feminist criticism of Dickinson's poetry.