« He fumbles with your Soul » : Emily Dickinson entre le piano et l’univers
Abstract
To what extent can one experiment with language? The essay will centre on a close reading of a poem by Emily Dickinson “He fumbles with your Soul” dating from 1862. In it, the poet endeavours to assess how far she can go in order to establish what her true identity or self is. She eventually discovers that it has nothing to do with the notion of identity. It is not something one possesses either. In order to understand her experiment, the approach adopted in the essay draws its inspiration from the concept of “modus” originally put forward by Spinoza. There is obviously only one Emily Dickinson, but she exists only through a multiplicity of modes of being. She exhibited one in her daily life, but, every time she started writing one of her small texts alone in her bedroom, she elaborated a new mode of being as she worked with words and tried to fathom what really constituted what she was when considered outside the norms of her community.
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