A History of Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry

Covering a wide range of poets and poems, this volume narrates a compelling history of nineteenth-century American women's poetry.

Jennifer Putzi (Edited by), Alexandra Socarides (Edited by)

9781107083981, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 December 2016

456 pages, 13 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.78 kg

A History of Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry is the first book to construct a coherent history of the field and focus entirely on women's poetry of the period. With contributions from some of the most prominent scholars of nineteenth-century American literature, it explores a wide variety of authors, texts, and methodological approaches. Organized into three chronological sections, the essays examine multiple genres of poetry, consider poems circulated in various manuscript and print venues, and propose alternative ways of narrating literary history. From these essays, a rich story emerges about a diverse poetics that was once immensely popular but has since been forgotten. This History confirms that the field has advanced far beyond the recovery of select individual poets. It will be an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and critics of both the literature and the history of this era.

Introduction: making history: thinking about nineteenth-century American women's poetry Jennifer Putzi and Alexandra Socarides
Part I. 1800–40, American Poesis and the National Imaginary: 1. Claiming Lucy Terry Prince: literary history and the problem of early African-American women poets Mary Louise Kete
2. Before the poetess: women's poetry in the early republic Tamara Harvey
3. The passion for poetry in Lydia Sigourney and Elizabeth Oakes Smith Kerry Larson
4. Album verse and the poetics of scribal circulation Michael C. Cohen
5. Presents of mind: Lydia Sigourney, gift book culture, and the commodification of poetry Elizabeth A. Petrino
6. The friendship elegy Desirée Henderson
7. Gendered Atlantic: Lydia Sigourney and Felicia Hemans Gary Kelly
Part II. 1840–65, Unions and Disunion: 8. Women, Transcendentalism, and The Dial: poetry and poetics Michelle Kohler
9. Poets of the loom, spinners of verse: working-class women's poetry and The Lowell Offering Jennifer Putzi
10. Women's transatlantic poetic network Páraic Finnerty
11. Making and unmaking a canon: American women's poetry and the nineteenth-century anthology Alexandra Socarides
12. 'What witty sally': Phoebe Cary's poetics of parody Faith Barrett
13. Nineteenth-century American women's poetry of slavery and abolition Eric Gardner
14. Fever-dreams: antebellum Southern women poets and the Gothic Paula Bennett
15. The Civil War language of flowers Eliza Richards
16. Poetry and bohemianism Joanna Levin and Edward Whitley
Part III. 1865–1900, Experiment and Expansion: 17. Women poets and American literary realism Elizabeth Renker
18. Verse forms Cristanne Miller
19. Braided relations: towards a history of nineteenth-century American Indian women's poetry Robert Dale Parker
20. Frances Harper and the poetry of reconstruction Monique-Adelle Callahan
21. (Hear the bird): Sarah Piatt and the dramatic monologue Jess Roberts
22. Women writers and the hymn Claudia Stokes
23. Women poets, child readers Angela Sorby
24. Emma Lazarus transnational Shira Wolosky
25. The creation of Emily Dickinson and the study of nineteenth-century American women's poetry Mary Loeffelholz.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]