Chapter Two is devoted to the presentation of suffering as an integral part of Emily Dickinson's linguistic style and her poetic strategies. It introduces the major concepts of Julia Kristeva's theory; that is the notion of abjection, the semiotic and the symbolic and presents their reflection in Emily Dickinson's verse.

Kristeva's concept of abjection and Emily Dickinson's poetry

Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-French feminist, semiotician and a professor at the University of Paris is also a leading figure in international critical analysis and cultural studies. She was one of the people who helped to formulate post-structuralism. Her central focus became the speaking being and the signifying processes through which it is established. She was not happy with structuralist theory, which concentrated on meaning without paying enough attention to the speaking subject. She remarked: “Structural linguistics and the ensuing structural movement seem to explore epistemological space by eliminating the speaking subject” (Niall 72). For Kristeva the speaking being is in a constant state of change and exposed to different forces: inner drives, sexuality, cultural norms (McAfee 1). She rejects the idea of a subject detached from the world and its body. By applying psychoanalytic studies she presents evolution of the self and its relation to the evolution of language.

Black Sun is a moving contemplation on depression and melancholia. However, Kristeva is not interested in it as an illness but as a discourse with a special language that should be analysed.