強制的異性愛を越えて : Emily Dickinsonがある女性に送った「手紙詩」
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概要
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Emily Dickinson's life, as well as her poetry, confronts us with various difficulties. According to traditional biographies, she rarely left her house and refused publication of her poems which were found in the drawer after her death. In addition, it is generally said that her poems were written because of her unrequited love for men. Much ink has been spent on the relationships between Dickinson and men, her mysterious male "lovers." The established biography casts an influence on interpretations of her poems in some sense. Over the last few decades, however, the relationship between Dickinson and women, especially Susan Dickinson, the poet's sister-in-law, has been revaluated among some critics. They have tied to prove that Susan was the most influential correspondent for Dickinson. Although Dickinson's passionate affection toward her is evident throughout her works, it has been neglected or devalued in the shadow of her love for men for a long period. In other words, there have been neglected and devalued works and people in Dickinson studies. For reasons given above, we have to have a further investigation of her writings to open new aspects of her life and works. The purpose of this paper is to revalue the poet's devotion toward a woman, Susan Dickinson, which has great influence on her poetic invention. By scrutinizing her "letters" and "letter-poems" sent to a woman, we can move away from the stereotypes of established biographies and gain a new understanding of Emily Dickinson. With the publication of Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith's edition Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson (1988), the importance of the "letters" and "letter-poems" sent to a woman became visible. This edition sweeps away the established mythical image or legendary figure with the poet's own voices. In these "letters," we can see Dickinson's "passionate" life, obvious devotion toward a woman, and the "dailiness" of her works. In Dickinson's intimate letters to Susan, we find her resistance to the heterosexual ideology embodied by gendered roles imposed by society and the marriage system. Dickinson and Susan were very intelligent in many respects and can share their irritated feeling toward women's duties which were imposed by malecentered society. Dickinson regards Susan as a "comrade" and a fellow intellectual woman and, therefore, their relationship was essential to the poet. According to Adrienne Rich, there exists a general conception which makes readers focus on Dickinson's romantic love with men. She asserts that there has been "compulsory heterosexuality" in human history. In "general," for instance, when people encounter woman poet's love poems or letters, these of course are recognized as writings subjected to men. As far as Dickinson's writings are concerned, however, this "general" concept is questionable, because she often expresses her passionate and, in some cases, erotic love for Susan. With Dickinson's "letters" and "letter-poems" which exemplify her love for Susan, we can say that the poet's life and works go beyond the conception of compulsory heterosexuality.
- 2006-02-28