"Well, she was a woman" : female characters in the poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Eric A. Weil (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Eric Weil

Abstract: American poetry began to change during the early modernist period, becoming less generalized and less sentimental in its portrayal of people and the situations they encounter in daily life. E.A. Robinson was one poet whose characterization of women demonstrates a variety of notions about the status and roles of women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Over 65 poems, including all but one of the book-length poems, involve women in some way. The fir3t half of this dissertation is a socio-historical feminist investigation of literary, personal, and social influences that shaped Robinson's views of women, addressing nineteenth-century expectations for women and their expression in the magazine poetry, Robinson's friendships with women, and hi3 wide reading in Victorian novels. The second half groups poems according to the roles in which Robinson portrayed the female characters. Chapter VI treats single women and Chapter VII treats mothers. Chapter VIII is the longest chapter, as it explores Robinson's women in relationships with men. Robinson'3 several widows appear in the poems discussed in Chapter IX. Chapter X expands on Robinson'3 capacity for sympathy for the disrespected and the despairing — prostitutes and suicides. Chapter XI examinies the poems with biblical, imaginary, and allegorical women figures.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1993
Subjects
Robinson, Edwin Arlington, $d 1869-1935 $x Characters $x Women
Women in literature

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