Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
"Edited by Her Friends": Claiming Posthumous Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America563 views
Author
White, Melissa Kay, Department of English, University of Virginia
Advisors
McGann, Jerry, Department of English, University of Virginia
Brickhouse, Anna, Department of English, University of Virginia
Felski, Rita, Department of English, University of Virginia
Abstract
"'Edited by Her Friends': Claiming Posthumous Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America" argues that nineteenth-century editorial practice provides a unique window into understanding the literary value of a text for its readers. By reading posthumously published poetry through its editing, my project imagines historical reading contexts for cases where stable poetic transmission seems most challenged, the author most passive, and the editor most powerful. My dissertation uncovers a tradition of posthumous poetry, including the work of Lucretia Davidson, Joseph Kent Gibbons, Ethel Lynn Beers, and Emily Dickinson, and elucidates this under-appreciated strain of nineteenth-century American poetry in which editorial practice and the work of mourning intertwine, not only in elegy and commemorative poetry, but also in the very idea of preserving and extending the memory and voice of the dead author.
Note: Abstract extracted from PDF text
Degree
PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Keywords
nineteenth-century; American poetry
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
White, Melissa Kay. "Edited by Her Friends": Claiming Posthumous Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America. University of Virginia, Department of English, PHD (Doctor of Philosophy), 2012-08-01, https://doi.org/10.18130/V30C37.
