Emily Dickinson and Hymn Culture

Bringing to bear the hymnody of Dickinson's female forbears and contemporaries and the Dissenting ideology found in Isaac Watts's hymns, this study offers a critical intervention in Dickinson's use of the hymn form. Dickinson's use of bee imagery and the re-visioned notions of religious design in her 'alternative hymns' show her engaging with a community of hymn writers in ways that anticipate the ideas of feminist theologians.

Dr Victoria N. Morgan has taught widely on English and American Literature at the University of Liverpool, UK, since 2002. She received her doctorate in 2007 and is the Co-Editor of Shaping Belief.

Contents: Preface; Part 1 Hymn Culture: Tradition and Theory: 'Twas as space sat singing to herself - and men - ': situating Dickinson's relation to hymn culture; The hymn - a form of devotion?; Theorising hymnic space: language, subjectivity and re-visioning the divine. Part 2Tradition and Experience: Refiguring Dickinson's Experience of Hymn Culture: Making the sublime ridiculous: Emily Dickinson and Isaac Watts in dissent; 'The prospect oft my strength renews': spiritual transport in the hymns of Phoebe Hinsdale Brown and Eliza Lee Follen. Part 3 Experiments in Hymn Culture: Tracing Dickinson's bee imagery; 'Why floods be served to us in bowls -/I speculate no more': reading Dickinson's strategy; Index; Bibliography; Index.