French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Chevrier-Bosseau, Emily Dickinson from a Shakespearean Perspective
Poetry and Poetics

Emily Dickinson du côté de Shakespeare

The Theatrical Modalities of Lyricism

Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau

Presses universitaires Blaise-Pascal, "Littératures" series, 2020

EAN13 : 9782845169319.

398 p. — 25.00 EUR

The poetry of Emily Dickinson reveals a dramatized lyricism: each poem becomes a stage inhabited by a voice that disguises itself, alters, and diffracts into various echoes. Deeply influenced by Shakespeare’s work, as well as by the pervasive theatricality of Victorian America, Dickinson stages the lyrical subject in its most theatrical dimensions. Since the primary reference for theatricality is that of the Elizabethan playwright and poet, this "contamination" by the theater prompts us to broaden our conception of lyricism. While we may observe ironic resurgences of the traditional view of lyricism as an intimate outpouring, Dickinson’s lyricism is above all to be understood in terms of dynamics and energy. For Emily Dickinson, the theater serves as an alternative space where lyricism is further transformed, acting as the nodal structure and beating heart of lyrical writing, and the very site of its revitalization.

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

Introduction

Part One: Entering the Stage

Chapter 1: Negative Capabilities

1.1 "Giving Room for Play"

1.2 "Infection in the sentence breeds": Hysterics, Theatricality, and Shakespearean Voice Contamination

Chapter 2: Shakespearean Comedy?

2-1: From Burlesque to Grotesque: The Theatricalization of Body and Language

2-2: "Bless thee, Bottom […] Thou art translated" (A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, 1, 113) – Metamorphoses

2-3: Staging the Divine and Death

Chapter 3: "Strategies of Reticence", Staged Silences, and the Nature of Voice

3-1: Staged Silences: The Persona of the Reluctant Bride

3-2: An Apophatic Poetics

Part Two: Stage Games: Representation in Question

Chapter 4: Texts in Play

4-1: The "Intermediate Area of Experience"

4-2: "Paper Practice": The Fascicles

4-3: Texts in Play: The Example of the "Master Letters" and "Master Poems"

Chapter 5: The Performance of Setting: The "Theater of Materials"

5-1: "A route of Evanescence": The Representation of Geographical Otherness

5-2: Sublimation. "The Orient is in the West": Emily Dickinson’s Orient

5-3: Condensation: "The name – of it – is ‘Autumn’" (J656), and "How the old Mountains drip with Sunset" (J291)

Part Three: Emily Dickinson and the Histrionic Imaginary of a Nation in Search of Identity

Chapter 6: "A space of time that is always filled with moving": Writing a Space in Transition

6-1: The Theatrical Space in Motion

6-2: The Spacetime of the Neutral

Chapter 7: "totus mundus agit histrionem": Self-Construction in a Histrionic Society

7-1: The Artifice of Political Play

7-2: From Melodrama to Intersectional Work: The Theatricalization of the Divided Self

7-3: "Hamlet wavered for all of us": The Age of Hamlet and Introspective Theatricality

7-4: Identity Construction under the Sign of Deviance

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices

Index of Cited Poems by Emily Dickinson

Index of Cited Letters by Emily Dickinson

Index of Cited Shakespearean Plays

Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau examines the dramatic dimensions of Emily Dickinson's verse, arguing that her poems function as theatrical stages where the lyrical voice fractures and transforms. Set against the backdrop of Victorian America's vibrant performance culture and a deep engagement with Elizabethan drama, the book repositions Dickinson away from the traditional view of the poet as a purely intimate voice. Instead, it highlights a dynamic poetics driven by energy, role-playing, and structural theatricality. This study offers valuable insights for scholars of nineteenth-century American literature, poetry, and Anglo-American literary reception.

The analysis moves across several thematic axes, exploring concepts such as negative capability, grotesque transformations, and staged silences alongside the material practices of the fascicles and the famous Master Letters. By contextualizing Dickinson within a broader histrionic imaginary and a nation searching for cultural identity, the volume illuminates how theatricality served as a vital alternative space for poetic experimentation. It will particularly assist researchers and students investigating the intersections of lyric poetry, dramatic theory, and the complex persona constructions of nineteenth-century writers.