Emily Dickinson and the Line of Flight

Abstract

Many critics have viewed Emily Dickinson as a poet of pain and loss. However, this article examines her poems in terms of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ‘line of flight’ theory, according to which they are full of delight and power. The significance of this study lies in revealing Dickinson’s hitherto disregarded desire for flight and immanent ontology, through viewing her poetry from Deleuze and Gattari’s perspective. The desire for flight manifests itself first as the molecular line and finally as the line of flight. Though this line of flight is re-territorialized at times, it not only destroys institutions such as religion and marriage but also creates new assemblages on the plane of immanence, where multiple elements coexist. In particular, the omnipotence felt in the alliance between a human and an object points to the limitations of transcendence and, furthermore, emphasizes the superiority of immanence.