Lamenting Loss: Public and Private Grief in the Elegies of Poe, Dickinson, Alcott, and Crane

dc.contributor.advisorPhillips, Philipen_US
dc.contributor.authorSmith, Joyen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberRenfroe, Alicia Mischaen_US
dc.contributor.committeememberGaitely, Patriciaen_US
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-06-02T19:07:55Z
dc.date.available2014-06-02T19:07:55Z
dc.date.issued2014-03-28en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation analyzes the elegies of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), and Stephen Crane (1871-1900) by situating them within the literary elegiac tradition and the nineteenth-century "Cult of Mourning." Poe, Dickinson, Alcott, and Crane are products of both traditions, and their elegies express the private and public mourning of a loved one, a popular public figure, or a catastrophic loss.en_US
dc.description.abstractThe introduction defines the elegiac conventions and history, placing the nineteenth-century elegy in conversation with previous elegies by revealing shifts in form and treatment of the elegiac conventions. Chapter one contextualizes the elegy within the nineteenth-century customs associated with the "Cult of Mourning." Chapter two focuses on Poe's less frequently examined elegies--"The Sleeper" (1831), "The Paean" (1831; revised as "Lenore" [1843]), "To One in Paradise" (1833), and "To Annie" (1849)--as well as his most famous poems--"The Raven" (1845) and "Annabel Lee" (1849)--in order to explore the extent to which Poe's dark aesthetics influence his formal elegies. Chapter three progresses into the mid-nineteenth century by examining Dickinson's elegies and discussing her intellectual interest in death and nature, along with her skepticism of institutionalized religion, as influences upon her elegies. Chapter four positions Alcott in this tradition and treats the influence of Gothic and domestic literature in her works. The final chapter establishes the role that Naturalism plays in Crane's elegies and argues that the cynicism in his elegies anticipates Modernism.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis study reveals these poets to be products of both the elegiac literary tradition and participants in nineteenth-century mourning customs. In particular, this study underscores the significant contributions of Dickinson and Alcott to a largely male-dominated elegiac tradition. By focusing on the lesser-known works of these authors within their literary and cultural context, this study makes an original contribution to the body of knowledge on Poe, Dickinson, Alcott, and Crane as elegists and to our understanding of the interrelationship between literary and cultural expressions of mourning in nineteenth-century American literature.en_US
dc.description.degreePh.D.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/3697
dc.publisherMiddle Tennessee State Universityen_US
dc.subjectAlcotten_US
dc.subjectAmerican Literatureen_US
dc.subjectCraneen_US
dc.subjectDickinsonen_US
dc.subjectElegyen_US
dc.subjectPoeen_US
dc.subject.umiAmerican literatureen_US
dc.subject.umiAmerican studiesen_US
dc.thesis.degreegrantorMiddle Tennessee State Universityen_US
dc.thesis.degreelevelDoctoralen_US
dc.titleLamenting Loss: Public and Private Grief in the Elegies of Poe, Dickinson, Alcott, and Craneen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Smith_mtsu_0170E_10251.pdf
Size:
3.28 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format