18 pages 36 minutes read

Sleeping with the Dictionary

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2002

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

“Sleeping with the Dictionary” by Harryette Mullen was published in her book of the same title in 2002. Sleeping with the Dictionary, Mullen’s fifth poetry collection, is inspired by the French Oulipo literary movement. Sleeping with the Dictionary was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

“Sleeping with the Dictionary” is a prose poem that utilizes many puns, double entendre, and alliteration. It connects the act of reading the dictionary with sex and love, investigates the speaker’s relationship to language, and explores transient or liminal space (spaces located between fixed states).

Poet Biography

Born 1953 in Florence, Alabama, Harryette Mullen was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and in Pennsylvania. The differences in vernacular English between the three states created language barriers between the poet and other children her age—especially the differences in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Mullen’s parents were divorced, and had family in both the South and New England, causing similar differences at home. These barriers and linguistic nuances informed Mullen’s later career as a poet and educator.

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