“[A] curious creature”?: Dickinson and/in Popular Culture

Abstract

The Apple TV+ series Dickinson culminates decades of feminist and queer scholarship on the poet Emily Dickinson, positioning her as a queer icon while challenging conventional portrayals of her life and legacy. Through the lens of feminist and queer studies, this paper examines the series’ portrayal of Dickinson’s journey to poetic self-identification, her resistance to patriarchal constraints, and her impact on contemporary culture. I argue that the series constructs a narrative that merges notions of the biopic with a coming-of-age story as well as historical facts with millennial sensibilities, resulting in a very effective re-writing of Dickinson’s life based on feminist scholarship. I claim that Dickinson not only redefines the poet’s public image but also overcomes restrictions of the biopic genre and thus becomes part of a feminist (and queer) counter-public sphere that resonates with contemporary audiences.