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Known for most of her troubled life as a fiction writer, Charlotte Mew’s significance as a poet is still in need of reappraisal. Despite receiving commendation in literary circles and being singled out as a truly unique poetic voice in her times, Mew’s work has largely been absent from discussions on Victorian or Modernist poetry, and often appropriated to serve ideological agendas. Her work – like that of other female Victorian poets – has all too readily been conflated with her tragic life. She only published 70 poems, 20 short stories, and a number of essays – although she is believed to have destroyed many of her texts before committing suicide. Her poetry in particular acts as a bridge between Victorian and Modernist sensibilities and freer, more complex poetic forms. Most importantly, her innovative use of poetic voice, disjointed syntax, and symbolism in her dramatic monologues makes her a notable proto-modernist and arguably one of the leading female poetic figures...
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References
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Jimenez-Munoz, A. (2020). Mew, Charlotte. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_241-1
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