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“An Obtrusive Sense of Art”: The Poetess and American Periodicals, 1850–1900

Thomas, Shannon L.

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.

This dissertation explores the explicit artistry of women poets within the context of American periodicals from 1850 to 1900. The broadest goal is to address how four women poets developed their artistic identities within a periodical culture that was dependent upon gendered conceptions of artistry embodied in the image of the poetess. In periodicals, the “poetess” was consistently depicted as a woman who freely recognized the limits of her sex and wrote poetry that embodied the virtues of the ideal Victorian woman. In contrast to the argument that the poetess tradition restricted women’s artistry, I contend that it actually gave women poets the space and motivation to develop poetic practices that were self-consciously artistic.

By approaching this subject through a study of specific facets of periodical culture, ones that women’s poetry visibly responded to, this project offers a nuanced conception of what women poets’ artistry entailed. Even as there was a uniform “poetess” present in periodicals, women poets’ interactions with and responses to this persona produced vastly different artistic models. Poetesses explicitly demonstrated their artistry when, for example, they deliberately experimented with generic categories and wrote meta-critical poems that obscured or refused simple interpretations. Each chapter focuses on a poetess and a periodical context that was influential in shaping her artistic identity: Emily Dickinson as a mass media critic and artist within the context of her local paper, the Springfield Daily Republican; Charlotte Forten as a Black Victorian Poetess and activist within the context of abolitionist newspapers; Sarah Piatt as an art critic and realist within the context of the periodical discourse on the fine arts; and Celia Thaxter as a conventional poetess and regionalist within the context of the Atlantic Monthly. This dissertation concludes that the emergence of women’s “obtrusive art” from within a culture so attached to the idea of women’s “artlessness” is an important event in American poetic history—one that has not been fully noticed or assessed by literary scholars.

In addressing how women poets’ aesthetic agendas were intricately tied to their periodical cultures, this dissertation accomplishes three major goals. First, I extend the rich criticism about the social and political significance of women’s poetry by foregrounding women poets’ artistic agendas in order to explain how women poets’ ability to identify themselves as deliberate literary artists depended on a periodical culture that was adverse to the concept of a “serious woman poet.” Second, I broaden the aims of periodical scholarship by illustrating the importance of periodicals to understanding nineteenth-century poets and the specific facets of periodical culture that were fundamental to women’s poetics. Finally, and perhaps most importantly to American literature studies as a whole, this project advocates for reintegrating women’s poetry into American literary history and for the necessity of reevaluating both nineteenth-century and current conceptions of the poetess so that the term reflects the actual practices and artistry of individual women poets.

Susan S. Williams, PhD (Advisor)
Elizabeth Hewitt (Committee Member)
Steven Fink (Committee Member)
289 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Thomas, S. L. (2010). “An Obtrusive Sense of Art”: The Poetess and American Periodicals, 1850–1900 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280934312

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Thomas, Shannon. “An Obtrusive Sense of Art”: The Poetess and American Periodicals, 1850–1900. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280934312.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Thomas, Shannon. "“An Obtrusive Sense of Art”: The Poetess and American Periodicals, 1850–1900." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280934312

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)