Expert: Larry Giuliano - 5/3/2006

Question
Hello.

I am writing a research paper on any literary topic of my choice for the final assignment of a college composition II course. I am choosing to explore feminist poetry by comparing and contrasting the works of Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou, as they are very different types of poets and I want to learn about them, as well as feminist poetry. So, I was wondering if you could help me with any/all of the following:
1.   Direct me to some websites that talk about feminist poetry (rather than just provide a list of feminist poets). I haven’t had much luck, which surprised me.
2.   Recommend any hard copy (books) resources that I might use. We have to use at least 3 outside resources, two of which must be hard copy.
3.   Point me to some specific Dickinson and Angelou poems that I could use for feminist comparison. I am semi-familiar with Angelou’s works, and barley familiar with Dickinson’s.
Feel free to recommend anything else you like too, I’m still developing the outline of the paper, so it’s in the beginning stages, and I really don't know anything about feminist poetry yet.

Thank you,
~Kelsey


Answer
Hi Kelsey,

Check out the following websites. They each contain bibliographies that should help you out.

http://www.feminist.org/arts/linkfaonline.html

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/women.html

http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femcharacteristics.html


Dickinson concentrated on several themes: love, nature, doubt and faith, suffering, death, immortality. Check the following for a discussion of these themes.

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/dickinson.html

Take any of the above themes and examine how the poets deal with the subject from a  feminist perspective. You may also consider comparing the following:
"I'm 'wife'- I've finished that" by Emily Dickinson
"Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou

Good Luck