Speaking Double: Parody as Resistance in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Poetry

ABSTRACT Nineteenth-century American women poets wrote parodies to challenge the sentimental portrayals of women and resist literary commercialism. Building on Mikhail Bakhtin’s and Linda Hutcheon’s theories of the dialogic and literary parody, this article explores how Lydia Sigourney (1791–1865) and Phoebe Cary (1824–71) parody male authors such as Poe and Longfellow to register their critiques while ostensibly maintaining a demure image for their readers. Their parodies also manifest subversive intent by speaking from and on behalf of marginalized groups, including women, the working class, and Native Americans, and by indicating support for environmental justice.