From Adrienne Rich and Emily Dickinson to Johann Jakob Bachofen, “Mutterrecht”, and Basel

For this week's session in my course on Adrienne Rich's poetry, we discussed Rich's poems "I Am in Danger—Sir—" from her 1966 collection "Necessities of Life", along with a chapter on Rich and Emily Dickinson from Betsy Erkkila's 1992 book "The Wicked Sisters: Women Poets, Literary History, and Discord." While discussing Rich's changing understandings of Dickinson from the 1950s to the 1980s, Erkkila also touches on many other milestones in Rich's writing, including her 1976 study "Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience And Institution". Erkkila's list of influences on that book refers to Johann Jakob Bachofen's 1861 book "Mutterrecht"—which made me smile, as Bachofen (1815-1887) was from Basel. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 18 March 2025)