Cristanne Miller
Encyclopedia
Cristanne Miller is Edward H. Butler Professor of English and Chair of the Department at the University at Buffalo. She received her PhD in 1980 from the University of Chicago
, and was for many years the W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor at Pomona College
. She has also served as past President of the Emily Dickinson International Society. Miller established her reputation as a foremost scholar of Emily Dickinson with the publication in 1987 of Emily Dickinson: A Poet's Grammar. Martha Nell Smith
reviewed the book enthusiastically, calling Miller an "exciting reader" of Dickinson with "close and thoughtful interpretation" and a view of the poems as "communicative, not solipsistic acts." David Porter
praised Miller for showing "readers what is actually at stake in this idiosyncratic verse and maps better than anyone to date the links between the grammatical choices and literary identity." Tom Paulin's review in the London Review of Books
concluded that Cristanne Miller's "densely researched study" offered a "living and contemporary" reading of Dickinson's poems. "Miller works from the assumption that Dickinson sees herself 'oppositionally, defining her position in the world negatively, by distance from some social construct or law'. And Miller shows how those negations have a constructive role." Other reviewers were similarly enthusiastic. She has been fellow at the Free University of Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the University of Oxford. She currently edits the Emily Dickinson Journal (2005-).
Miller has published equally extensively on Marianne Moore
and modernist poetry, including essays or books on Moore
, Mina Loy
, Else Lasker-Schuler
, Elizabeth Bishop
, modernism in New York and Berlin, and gender and modernism. Emma Neale in the London Quarterly calls her 1996 Marianne Moore: Questions of Authority "An elegant tribute to a complex style...Gender, race, class and power are subjects which are used [by Miller] convincingly to unearth embedded references to several aspects of social control in the poetry itself." Celeste Goodridge in American Literature
remarks that "the revisionary thrust of this book is important, timely, and a major contribution to Moore studies and the history of modernism." On Miller's more recent Cultures of Modernism, Janet Lyon writes in Modernism/Modernity
that it "offers a welcome corrective to the unreflective critical tendency . . . to make broad claims about the historical experiences and cultural conundrums of 'women,' and particularly 'women writers.' Miller offers tour-de-force comparative readings . . . threading together the world-historical with the personal, poetics with the political, and wielding the instruments of scansion as deftly as a surgeon." Miller was President of the Modernist Studies Association in 2006-07.
Other topics on which Miller has published include poetry and theory, American Civil War poetry, women and language, feminism and poetry, and Walt Whitman.
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and was for many years the W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor at Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
. She has also served as past President of the Emily Dickinson International Society. Miller established her reputation as a foremost scholar of Emily Dickinson with the publication in 1987 of Emily Dickinson: A Poet's Grammar. Martha Nell Smith
Martha Nell Smith
Martha Nell Smith is Professor of English and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park...
reviewed the book enthusiastically, calling Miller an "exciting reader" of Dickinson with "close and thoughtful interpretation" and a view of the poems as "communicative, not solipsistic acts." David Porter
David Porter
David Porter may refer to:*David J. Porter , Republican candidate for Railroad Commission of Texas*David R. Porter , Pennsylvania politician*David Porter , United States Navy officer and ambassador...
praised Miller for showing "readers what is actually at stake in this idiosyncratic verse and maps better than anyone to date the links between the grammatical choices and literary identity." Tom Paulin's review in the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
concluded that Cristanne Miller's "densely researched study" offered a "living and contemporary" reading of Dickinson's poems. "Miller works from the assumption that Dickinson sees herself 'oppositionally, defining her position in the world negatively, by distance from some social construct or law'. And Miller shows how those negations have a constructive role." Other reviewers were similarly enthusiastic. She has been fellow at the Free University of Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the University of Oxford. She currently edits the Emily Dickinson Journal (2005-).
Miller has published equally extensively on Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
and modernist poetry, including essays or books on Moore
Moore
Moore may refer to:* Moore , a crater on Venus* Moore , lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon* Moore , a common English-language surname* People with surname Moore...
, Mina Loy
Mina Loy
Mina Loy born Mina Gertrude Löwry was an artist, poet, playwright, novelist, Futurist, actress, Christian Scientist, designer of lamps, and bohemian. She was one of the last of the first generation modernists to achieve posthumous recognition. Her poetry was admired by T. S...
, Else Lasker-Schuler
Else Lasker-Schüler
Else Lasker-Schüler was a Jewish German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Lasker-Schüler fled Nazi Germany and lived out the rest of her life in Jerusalem.-Biography:Schüler was born in...
, Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
, modernism in New York and Berlin, and gender and modernism. Emma Neale in the London Quarterly calls her 1996 Marianne Moore: Questions of Authority "An elegant tribute to a complex style...Gender, race, class and power are subjects which are used [by Miller] convincingly to unearth embedded references to several aspects of social control in the poetry itself." Celeste Goodridge in American Literature
American Literature (journal)
American Literature is a literary journal published by Duke University Press. It is sponsored by the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association , known as the MLA. The current editor is Priscilla Wald. The first volume of this journal was published in March 1929.Coverage...
remarks that "the revisionary thrust of this book is important, timely, and a major contribution to Moore studies and the history of modernism." On Miller's more recent Cultures of Modernism, Janet Lyon writes in Modernism/Modernity
Modernism/modernity
Modernism/modernity is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1994 by Lawrence Rainey and Robert van Hallberg. Since 2001 it has been the official publication of the Modernist Studies Association and each September issue presents papers from their annual conference.The journal is...
that it "offers a welcome corrective to the unreflective critical tendency . . . to make broad claims about the historical experiences and cultural conundrums of 'women,' and particularly 'women writers.' Miller offers tour-de-force comparative readings . . . threading together the world-historical with the personal, poetics with the political, and wielding the instruments of scansion as deftly as a surgeon." Miller was President of the Modernist Studies Association in 2006-07.
Other topics on which Miller has published include poetry and theory, American Civil War poetry, women and language, feminism and poetry, and Walt Whitman.
Selected publications
- Cristanne Miller, Emily Dickinson: A Poet's Grammar. Harvard University Press, 1987. [Chapter reprinted in New Century Views of Emily Dickinson, ed. Judith Farr; Prentice-Hall, 1996.]
- Cristanne Miller, Marianne Moore: Questions of Authority. Harvard University Press, 1995.
- Cultures of Modernism: Marianne Moore, Mina Loy, Else Lasker-Schuler. Gender and Literary Community in New York and Berlin. University of Michigan Press, 2005.
- Cristanne Miller, Comic Power in Emily Dickinson. Co-authored with Suzanne Juhasz and Martha Nell Smith. University of Texas Press, 1993.
- Feminist Measures: Soundings in Poetry and Theory. Edited with Lynn Keller. University of Michigan Press, 1994.
- Selected Letters of Marianne Moore. Edited with Bonnie Costello and Celeste Goodridge. Knopf, 1997.
- The Emily Dickinson Handbook. Edited with Roland Hagenbuchle and Gudrun Grabher. University of Massachusetts Press, 1998; second printing 2004.
- The Women and Language Debate: A Sourcebook. Edited with Camille Roman and Suzanne Juhasz. Rutgers University Press, 1994. Online edition with netlibrary.com, 1999.
- Words for the Hour': A New Anthology of American Civil War Poetry. Edited with Faith Barrett. University of Massachusetts Press, 2005.
- Critics and Poets on Marianne Moore: 'A right good salvo of barks'. Edited with Linda Leavell and Robin G. Schulze. Bucknell University Press, 2005.
- “Gender and Sexuality in Modernist Poetry.” Cambridge Companion to Modernist Poetry. Eds. Alex Davis and Lee Jenkins. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 68-84.
- “Tongues ‘loosened in the melting pot’: The Poets of Others and the Lower East Side.” Modernism/Modernity 14.3 (Fall 2007): 455-476.
- “Distrusting: Marianne Moore on Feeling and War in the 1940s.” American Literature, 80.2 (2008): 353-379.
- "Dickinson's Structured Rhythms," in A Companion to Emily Dickinson, ed. Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeffelholz Blackwell Publishing, 2008, pp. 391–414.
- “Drum-Taps—Revision and Reconciliation.” Walt Whitman Quarterly 26.4 (Spring 2009): 171-96.