Background
Smith, Martha Nell was born on May 14, 1953 in San Angleo, Texas, United States. Daughter of Earl Wesley and Hattie (Mozelle) Smith.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Comic Power in Emily Dickinson
(In this boldly revisionary work, three noted Dickinson sc...)
In this boldly revisionary work, three noted Dickinson scholars take issue with the traditional tragic image of Emily Dickinson by focusing on the comic elements of her art from a feminist point of view.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0292740298/?tag=2022091-20
(Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson) Author: Martha Nell Smith published on (December, 1992)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Y3032AI/?tag=2022091-20
Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson
( Emily Dickinson wrote a "letter to the world" and left ...)
Emily Dickinson wrote a "letter to the world" and left it lying in her drawer more than a century ago. This widely admired epistle was her poems, which were never conventionally published in book form during her lifetime. Since the posthumous discovery of her work, general readers and literary scholars alike have puzzled over this paradox of wanting to communicate widely and yet apparently refusing to publish. In this pathbreaking study, Martha Nell Smith unravels the paradox by boldly recasting two of the oldest and still most frequently asked questions about Emily Dickinson: Why didn't she publish more poems while she was alive? and Who was her most important contemporary audience? Regarding the question of publication, Smith urges a reconception of the act of publication itself. She argues that Dickinson did publish her work in letters and in forty manuscript books that circulated among a cultured network of correspondents, most important of whom was her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. Rather than considering this material unpublished because unprinted, Smith views its alternative publication as a conscious strategy on the poet's part, a daring poetic experiment that also included Dickinson's unusual punctuation, line breaks, stanza divisions, calligraphic orthography, and bookmaking—all the characteristics that later editors tried to standardize or eliminate in preparing the poems for printing. Dickinson's relationship with her most important reader, Sue Dickinson, has also been lost or distorted by multiple levels of censorship, Smith finds. Emphasizing the poet-sustaining aspects of the passionate bonds between the two women, Smith shows that their relationship was both textual and sexual. Based on study of the actual holograph poems, Smith reveals the extent of Sue Dickinson's collaboration in the production of poems, most notably "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers." This finding will surely challenge the popular conception of the isolated, withdrawn Emily Dickinson. Well-versed in poststructuralist, feminist, and new textual criticism, Rowing in Eden uncovers the process by which the conventional portrait of Emily Dickinson was drawn and offers readers a chance to go back to original letters and poems and look at the poet and her work through new eyes. It will be of great interest to a wide audience in literary and feminist studies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0292776667/?tag=2022091-20
Martha Nell Smith
Edit Profilewriter English language educator
Martha Nell Smith, American English language educator, writer. Newtorked Associate fellow University Virginia Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, 1994, National Endowment of the Humanities fellow, 1990; grantee American Council Learned Societies, 1988, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 1984; recipient Bill Casey award for best contribution to San Jose Studies in 1987, 88.
Education
Bachelor magna cum laude, Rutgers University, 1977; Master of Arts, Rutgers University, 1982; Doctor of Philosophy, Rutgers University, 1985.
Career
Lecturer, teaching assistant, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1978-1985;
assistant director writing program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1985-1986;
assistant Professor of English, U. Maryland., College Park, 1986-1992;
associate Professor of English, U. Maryland., College Park, since 1992. Associate director graduate English U. Maryland., since 1990, member various committees, since 1986, faculty advisor English undergraduate association, 1987-1988, examiner Doctor of Philosophy orals committee, English department, 1987-1988, member graduate county, 1991-1993, chair graduate school committee academic Studies., 1992-1993, chair graduate committee English department self study, spring 1993. Grant reviewer National Endowment for Humanities.
Consultant Dundalk Community College,1987. Panelist in field; fellow and composition committee Rutgers University, 1985-1986. Grant reviewer National Endowment for Humanities, since 1991.
Achievements
Works
book
-
Comic Power in Emily Dickinson
(In this boldly revisionary work, three noted Dickinson sc...)
-
Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson
( Emily Dickinson wrote a "letter to the world" and left ...)
- Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson By ( Author ) Jan-1992 Paperback
- (Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson) Author: Martha Nell Smith published on (December, 1992)
-
Comic Power in Emily Dickinson
Membership
Member Modern Language Association, National Organization for Women, Northeastern Modern Language Association, Emily Dickinson International Society (treasurer, founder since 1987).
Connections
Married Timothy Lee Higginbotham, August 2, 1975 (divorced September 8, 1982).
Awards
-
Newtorked Associate fellow University Virginia Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, 1994, National Endowment of the Humanities fellow, 1990. Grantee American Council Learned Societies, 1988, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 1984. Recipient Bill Casey award for best contribution to San Jose Studies in 1987, 88.Newtorked Associate fellow University Virginia Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, 1994, National Endowment of the Humanities fellow, 1990. Grantee American Council Learned Societies, 1988, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 1984. Recipient Bill Casey award for best contribution to San Jose Studies in 1987, 88.