In this study, I analyze and systematize James Dickey's philosophy of language as reflected in his collected reviews, essays, interviews, “self-interviews,” speeches, letters, and journal entries. Most reviewers of Dickey's non-fiction prose, particularly his poetry reviews, do not believe that this work reveals a unified and well-developed philosophy of language or system of evaluation for judging the works of other writers—even Dickey himself agrees with this assessment. However, when taken as a whole, Dickey's reflections on his own writing and the writing of others do reveal a coherent language philosophy—from which arise certain critical standards that the poet-as-critic applies consistently. As a critic, Dickey bases his standards and judgments on criteria arising from the kinds of relationships he believes should exist between language, self, experience, and readers. According to Dickey, the poet uses language as a tool to conceive and re-conceive both self and experience, and to energize and equip readers to do the same. Taken together, Dickey's language philosophy and critical criteria reveal the hope Dickey places in the transforming power of language, particularly as language acts on, and interacts with, personality, reality, and readers.
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