Emily Dickinson's “Theatre of Matter,” Act I

Chapter 4 initiates an investigation into Dickinson’s “theatre of matter” (Deleuze): I understand “matter” as material (fabrics, textures) and in its scientific sense, as matter within the framework of quantum physics. Exploring the inflections, the textures, the rustling of the lyric voice, I delineate how Dickinson’s references to material culture and precious fabrics and gems like pearls are “untimely matter” (Harris) which construct altered geographical spaces that mobilize a contemporary, 19th-century web of references as well as a Shakespearean, early modern one.