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THE EMILY DICKINSON INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Volume 22, Number 2 November/December 2010 “The Only News I know / Is Bulletins all Day / From Immortality.” The Oxford Conference in Retrospect EMILY DICKINSON INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Officers President: Martha Ackmann Vice President: Jed Deppman Secretary: Stephanie Tingley Treasurer: James C. Fraser Board Members Martha Ackmann James C. Fraser Nancy Pridgen Antoine Cazé Jonnie Guerra Martha Nell Smith Paul Crumbley Suzanne Juhasz Alexandra Socarides Jed Deppman Marianne Noble Hiroko Uno Cindy Dickinson Elizabeth Petrino Jane Wald (Honorary Board Member) Vivian Pollak (Honorary Board Member) Legal Advisor:Barbara Leukart Nominations Chair:Ellen Louise Hart Membership Chair:Jonnie Legal Advisor:Guerra Barbara Leukart Chapter Development Chair: Nancy Pridgen Dickinson and Nominationsthe Arts Chair:Barbara Chair: JonnieDana Guerra Book Review Editor: Barbara Kelly Chapter Development Membership Chair:Nancy Chair: PridgenElizabeth Petrino Bulletin Editor: Georgiana Strickland Book Dickinson Review Editor:Barbara and the Arts Chair: Kelly Barbara Dana Journal Editor: Cristanne Miller Journal Editor:Cristanne Miller 2010 Sustaining Members Martha Ackmann David H. Forsyth Martha Nell Smith Marilyn Berg-Callander Diana K. Fraser Gary Lee Stonum Jack Capps James C. Fraser Ethan Tarasov Sheila Coghill Marilee Lindemann Robin Tarasov Jane D. Eberwein Cristanne Miller 2010 Contributing Members Paul Beckley Donna Dreyer Niels Kjaer Emily Seelbinder Ellen Beinhorn Robert Eberwein Polly Longsworth Nobuko Shimomura Mary Elizabeth K. Bern- Judith Farr Cindy MacKenzie Maxine Silverman hard Alice Fulton Mayumi Maeda George T. Stone Marisa Bulgheroni Jonnie G. Guerra Daniel Manheim Mason Swilley Diane K. Busker Eleanor Heginbotham Jo Ann Orr Richard Tryon Carolyn L. Cooley Eleanor Humbert Carol Pippen Hiroko Uno Barbara Dana Suzanne Juhasz Vivian R. Pollak Kathy Welton Scott Donaldson Lois Kackley Robert M. Russell Tracy C. Winkler EDIS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial contributions of these members. Editor’s Note: My sincere thanks to all those who contributed reports on the conference sessions—under a tight deadline and many while recovering from jetlag. Without your efforts we would not have this historical record of an outstanding interna- tional conference. Thanks also to Rebecca Mooney and Lee Ann Gorthey for their excellent conference photos. All unattributed photos are by Rebecca. Finally, thanks, as always, to Barbara Kelly for her outstanding work as book review editor. Georgie Strickland EDIS Bulletin postage is paid at Chicago, IL 60611. Membership in the Society is open to all persons with an interest in Emily Dickinson and her work. For further information, contact Martha Ackmann, (ISSN President, 1055-3932) EDIS, is publishedGender Studies, twice yearly,Mount May/JuneHolyoke College, and November/December, South Hadley, MA 01075 by The USA, Emily or [email protected] International Society, Annual Inc. duesStandard are $50.00 Mail non-profit for regu- lar members, $30.00 for students, $200.00 for sustaining members, $113.00 for institutional members, $100.00 for contributing members (all of whom receive the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal), or $20.00 for associate members (Bulletin only). Membership inquiries should be directed to James C. Fraser, 159 Prospect St., Apt 7, Acton, MA, 01720-3654, USA. Membership applications and changes of address should be sent to The Emily Dickinson International Society, c/o Johns Hopkins University Press, P.O. Box 19966, Baltimore, MD 21211-0966, USA. Direct changes of address to [email protected], 800-548-1784 (U.S. and Canada), or 410-516-6987; fax to 410-516-3866. Address submissions for the Bulletin to Georgiana Strickland, 133 Lackawanna Rd., Lexington, KY 40503 USA or [email protected]. Submission deadlines are March 1 (Spring issue) and September 1 (Fall issue). All articles become the property of the Bulletin. Back issues are available for $5.00 each from the editor. Copyright © 2010 by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. The Bulletin is indexed in EBSCO, Humanities International Complete, and the MLA Bibliography. www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org IN THIS ISSUE T h e O x f O r d C O n f e r e n C e 4 Beneath a British Sky 19 British Connections VII: By Jane Eberwein Repellant Settings, Best Gems: George Eliot and Emily Dickinson 7 British Connections I: By Margaret Freeman Dickinson, Shakespeare and Milton By Martha Ackmann 20 Manuscripts II: Dickinson in Pieces 7 British Connections II: Keats By Geoffrey Schramm By Ellen Louise Hart 21 Sacrifice and Drama in Dickinson 8 British Connections III: By Eleanor Heginbotham Dickinson and the Brontës By James Guthrie 22 Dickinson and the Self By Brad Ricca 9 Global Connections I Dickinson In and Out of Japan, China, and 22 Dickinson and the Arts I: France Imagination’s Muse: By Logan Esdale Emily Dickinson as Creative Inspiration By Georgiana Strickland 10 Dickinson, Gender, and the Woman Writer By Stephanie Tingley 23 Dickinson and the Arts II: Dickinson on Stage—A Roundtable 10 British Connections IV: Discussion Dickinson and Emily Brontë By Jonnie Guerra By Marianne Noble 24 Emily Dickinson & I: 11 Plenary Panel 1 The Journey of a Portrayal By Martin Greenup Reviewed by Tom Daley 12 Dickinson, Nature and God 25 Archival Resources: By Jane Eberwein “Over the fence — I could climb” 12 Dickinson and Class Primary Sources for Dickinson Scholarship By Suzanne Juhasz By Aífe Murray 13 Global Connections II: 26 British Connections VIII: Dickinson in German and Polish Authors Solitude and Suffering By Antoine Cazé By Cindy MacKenzie 14 British Connections V: * 27 Dickinson in New England George Eliot, Vol. I By Michael Manson By Emily Seelbinder 27 British Connections IX: 15 Manuscripts I: Dickinson’s Imagination and Words Dickinson’s Manuscript Books By Mary Loeffelholz By Alexandra Socarides 28 British Connections X: 16 Traveling Feet: Romantic and Religious Visions Dickinson’s Meter and the Lyric By Richard E. Brantley By Jed Deppman 28 Dickinson, (Poetic) Identity, and Keats 17 Plenary Speaker: Evolutionary Enigmas By Martha Nell Smith and Colonial Equations: 29 British Connections XI: Dickinson’s Transoceanic Geography Dickinson and the Brownings By Paraic Finnerty By Mike Yetman 18 Plenary Panel 2 By Paul Crumbley *There was no panel designated British Connections VI. Continued on Page 39 THE EDIS OXFORD CONFERENCE, 2010 Beneath a British Sky By Jane Eberwein “ ouch Shakespeare for me,” Em- Joyce, and Woolf whose writings offer ily Dickinson commanded the instructive parallels. Speakers exam- Ttraveling Mabel Loomis Todd ined episodes from novels that may (L1004). When other friends visited England, she gave them similar instruc- also explored her adaptations of liter- tions: “Should anybody where you go, aryhave forms influenced such as Dickinson’s the sonnet, poems dramatic but talk of Mrs. Browning, you must hear monologue, hymn, and various types of for us” (L266); “perhaps you have spo- lyric that she would have known large- ken with George Eliot. Will you ‘tell me ly through British models. Her interest about it’?” (L553). When she imagined in literary careers (especially those of visiting England, its chief attractions poets and women novelists) engaged were literary ones because of the in- attention in multiple panels, some- tensely personal attachments she had times with reference to pen names and formed to living and dead authors. Yet Dickinson’s personae. her command to Mrs. Todd appears in ley welcomed the many participants. American authors and historical con- a letter abounding in descriptions of He spoke of the suitability of Oxford texts drew extensive analysis as well, the New England summer as she her- to the work on which all would engage self observed it and as Emerson had over the following three days, as well as her attachments to American authors celebrated it. This passion for British the university’s role in his own famil- with speakers finding new insights into literature combined with Yankee pride ial and scholarly life. Cristanne Miller well as the Transcendentalists. The inspired the choice of “Were I Britain (past president of EDIS and, with Crum- poet’sand historical often complex figures—Betsy and uncertain Ross reas- born” as theme for the Emily Dickinson bley, chief organizer of these events) sponses to the class and gender expec- Oxford International Conference. announced upcoming events and made tations of her time brought enlighten- From August 6 through 8, 2010, 119 suggestions for smooth transitions ing insights—whether Dickinson was registered conferees and numerous between closely timed sessions. Nigel said to have experienced those social friends and family members shared in Bowles, Director of the Rothermere, constraints through interactions with a wide range of scholarly, artistic, and and Ron Bush, Drue Heinz Professor household servants or through identi- festive activities at various sites in Ox- of American Literature at Oxford, ex- - ford, England—a college town even old- tended additional welcomes. After one er and more storied than Amherst. This of many brief interludes for coffee and onfication Dickinson with offictional the cultural characters. and intel Nu- was the eighth international confer- typically British refreshments, con- lectualmerous upheavals papers dealt of withher era, the includinginfluence ence sponsored by the Emily Dickinson geological discoveries about deep