TARIH KULTUR VE SANAT ARASTIRMALARI DERGISI-JOURNAL OF HISTORY CULTURE AND ART RESEARCH, vol.4, no.2, pp.24-38, 2015 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Emily Dickinson's poetry is characterized by her emphasis on ironic use of discourse that amounts to her persistent manifestation of individuality against hypocrisy and vanity. She exerts her peculiar poetic language in a way that helps deplore as well as explore the paradoxical human condition. This paper argues that Dickinson produces a language of poetry, which, in Cleanth Brooks' terms, provides the reader with the "language of paradox." Dickinson's ironic poetry exemplifies Brooks' idea that ironic poetry is self-conscious and satiric in nature and is made up of a language of paradox. The study, therefore, aims to reveal how the language of paradox in Dickinson's poetry yields to irony which is primarily associated with her salient assertiveness, isolation and strong individuality.