Emily Dickinson's Sexual Personae

Constantly portrayed as the reclusive spinster, the dressed-in-white Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson has always been regarded as the epitome of American Victorianism… However, during her lifetime she wrote poems full of erotic imagery, many dealing explicitly with the subject of sex. Dickinson adopted a series of sexual personae to write poems that explored themes of sexuality. Her refusal to publish allowed her to write with impunity. Her personae included male and female heterosexuals, lesbians, autoeroticists, masochists, sadists and necrophiles. Emily Dickinson’s Sexual Personae is an in-depth study of the transgressive nature of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.