The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 3, No 3 & 4 Spring/Summer 1991.

Bennett, Paula. Emily Dickinson: Woman Poet.  University of Iowa Press, 1990.

In Emily Dickinson: Woman Poet, Bennett succeeds excellently at her stated aim, “to help make Dickinson accessible to teachers, students, and general readers,” while still producing a work of considerable original scholarship. She does an admirable job of presenting lucid arguments that incorporate contemporary feminist and literary critical theory while neither losing the average, educated reader in a sea of jargon nor oversimplifying her analysis. Bennett weaves together the texts of Dickinson’s poems and the context of her life in an eminently readable and challenging work.

Beginning by setting the scene with a discussion of the work of other women poets of the day, Bennett builds her lesbian interpretation of Dickinson by analyzing in turn “the metaphysical basis for [her] intellectual and linguistic experimentation,” the religious poetry, the nature poetry, the psychological poetry, and finally, Dickinson’s erotic imagery. The woman-centered Emily Dickinson who emerges from this analysis is a far more dynamic and believable character than the frustrated spinster found in so many other studies of her work and life. Bennett’s attitude toward the biographical details she posits is refreshing and unpretentious. ”Plausibility is, in my opinion, the best we can aim for, ” she states. Her arguments are indeed plausible and convincing. Our understanding of both Dickinson’s poetry and her life is greatly enriched by Bennett’s interpretation.

Highly recommended for all academic libraries and for public libraries which collect literary criticism or literary biographies.

Reviewed by Suzy Taraba
Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina