Of women, poetry, and power
Subtitle: strategies of address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou
By: Zofia Burr.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
Subjects: Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 -- Criticism and interpretation; Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917- -- Criticism and interpretation; Miles, Josephine, 1911- -- Criticism and interpretation; Angelou, Maya -- Criticism and interpretation; Lorde, Audre -- Criticism and interpretation; American poetry -- Women authors -- History and criticism; Women and literature -- United States -- History; Authors and readers -- United States -- History; Power (Social sciences) in literature
Description: "The legacy of Emily Dickinson's life and work have shaped a romantic conception of women's poetry as private, personal, and expressive that has governed the reception of subsequent American women poets." "Of Women, Poetry, and Power demonstrates how the canonization of Dickinson has consolidated limiting assumptions about women's poetry in twentieth-century America and models an alternative reading practice that allows for deeper engagement with the political work of modern poetry.".

"Analyzing the reception of poems by Josephine Miles, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, and Maya Angelou, Zofia Burr shows the persistence of these critical outlooks and dispels the belief that we have long since moved beyond such limiting gendered expectations. Turning away from an obsessive concern with a poet's biography, Burr's readings of contemporary women's poetry accentuate its engagement with and provocation of readers through its forms of address.

Burr shows how displacing the limits of dominant reception is possible by approaching poetry as communicative utterance, not just as self-expression."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction i; title: 1. The Canonization of Emily Dickinson; title: 2. Josephine Miles and the Common Materials of Language; title: 3. Reading Gwendolyn Brooks across Audiences; title: 4. Audre Lorde and the Responsibility of the Reader; title: 5. Maya Angelou on the Inaugural Stage.