Argument Abstract:
In this final project, I will on exploring the ways in which Emily Dickinson and Toni Morrison have revolutionized the reading experience. Both women have consciously played with convention, occasionally accepting some elements of tradition, but more characteristically rejecting the rules of the past and recreating, transforming a literary genre and its impact. Though a seemingly unfit pairing, Dickinson and Morrison, as writers, have much in common. In this paper, I will be examining the way in which they have used a musical genre as a stencil for the structure of their work as well as their use of first and second person voice. By incorporating these elements into their work, Dickinson and Morrison, are facilitating a novel connection with the reader. They crave connection with their audience, drawing them in and requiring them to play a part in deriving meaning from the text. Dickinson and Morrison purposefully leave room in their writing for a reader, without which the work would be incomplete. These two amazing women have done something remarkable; they have created a text that is reader dependent; they have changed the reading experience.
Critical Source Abstract:
Orzeck, Martin, and Robert Weisbuch. Dickinson and Audience. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Print.
The twelve essays in this collection explore Dickinson’s concept of audience: for whom did she write; did she wish to publish her poems; was she seeking the perfect reader and who was that reader; what was her relationship to the public during her lifetime, to readers and critics now? Many critics argue that because Dickinson was such an obsessively private writer and rarely submitted her poems for publication, that she did not have an audience. While acknowledging this is true, a large number of her poems began their lives included in letters to friends. The letters themselves wonderfully empathetic and yearning, in turn for intense response, speak to a desire in Dickinson for intimate connection. This is proof that Dickinson did consider her audience and her poems bear the mark of communication. Clearly, her poems are not means of conventional communication, but her puzzling poetry provides an alternative means of interaction and challenges our expectations of writing. This volume of essays is significant because it is exclusively focused on Dickinson’s relation to audience–from the relatively few persons who received many of the poems to that vast, unseen, yet somehow specific other that any literary work addresses.
Key Passage:
Jazz: “But I can’t say that aloud; I can’t tell anyone that I have been waiting all for this all my life and that being chosen to wait is the reason I can. If I were able I’d say it. Say make me, remake me. You are free to do it and I am free to let you because look, look. Look where you’re hands are. Now,”(229).
733: The Spirit is the Conscious Ear.
We actually Hear
When We inspect—that’s audible—
That is admitted—Here—
For other Services—as Sound—
There hangs a smaller Ear
Outside the Castle—that Contain—
The other—only—Hear—
In these passages, Morrison and Dickinson facilitate a connection with reader by using first person to invite the reader into the text. It is as though the text itself is reaching out to the reader, asking him/her to join in the making of the meaning of the text. In the final lines of Morrison’s novel Jazz, the unnamed narrator seems to be shouting at the reader, demanding that they not only “look”, but make and remake it; interact with the text. By doing so, Morrison also echoes the presence of music in her text, invoking a call and response technique. Similarly, in “The Spirit is the Conscious Ear”, Dickinson encourages reader-engagement, while stressing the significant of sound. Both in the structure and content of this poem, Dickinson dwells on the Ear and the sensation of Hearing. Continually playing with the homonym “Hear” and “Here” throughout “The Spirit is the Conscious Ear”, Dickinson further alludes to the significance of sound in her poetry; “Hear” referring to the ability to perceive sound and “Here” referring to the poem itself. Though her poetry is rarely considered a musical innovation, it is Dickinson’s melody that massages the reader, stimulating and soothing him/her with the sensation of sound; creating an unconventional connection with the reader.
Future of Essay:
I will be investigating the related or different spiritual traditions they invoke, where reading and voice figure: the Bible, call and response, Dickinson’s hymns, African Spirituals, Jazz, the Blues, Slave Narratives.
