Philology as rhetoric in Emily Dickinson's poems.

Abstract

Philology, or the love of words, is a source of power in Emily Dickinson's poems. Noah Webster's dictionary was a storehouse of philological knowledge and thus a major source of linguistic power for Dickinson. Her poems show that philology is an effective way to compose and interpret texts, and that paying attention to words is a source of rhetorical power for readers and writers today. The first six chapters of the dissertation feature aspects of Dickinson's philology from the perspective of nineteenth-century rhetoric: Definition, Music, Cohesion, Dictionary Use, and Etymology. Chapter One tells the story of Emily's "Lexicon" and "Noah's Ark." Chapter Two discusses definition as a rhetorical strategy and presents a definition of terms. Chapter Three explores music as rhetorical power in the themes, prosody, and sound patterns, syntax, and lexis of Dickinson's poems. The cohesion of Dickinson's lexical choices is the focus of Chapter Four. Chapter Five focuses more intently the role of the Lexicon in Dickinson's composing processes. The role of etymology in Webster's lexicography and in Dickinson's poetry is the subject of Chapter Six. Chapter Seven uses A. L. Becker's definitions of a new philology to discuss the function of philology in contemporary English studies.