English 492 Prof.
Elizabeth Mills
Spring 2004 Chambers
3139, ext. 2288
Office
hours: T
W
and by appointment
EMILY DICKINSON :
The Art of Poetry
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson.
Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical
Essays. Ed. Judith Farr.
Franklin, Ralph, ed. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading
Edition.
Habegger, Alfred.
My Wars are Laid Away in Books.
Miller,
Cristanne. Emily
Dickinson: A Poet's Grammar.
Harvard
UP, 1987.
Visiting Emily. Eds. Sheila Coghill
and Thom Tammaro.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Major responsibility for organizing and
leading one class discussion during the semester.
2. Weekly presentations, including
theoretically informed short papers and oral presentations about the week's
assigned texts.
3.
A formal, twenty minute presentation summarizing research investigation,
evidence, and conclusions for your seminar paper. Fifteen-minute question and answer period
will follow each presentation; all students should participate in that.
4. A written prospectus and a
theoretically sound, carefully revised and documented
paper developing an original thesis. The
paper must be at least 20 pages.
5. Class participation. The crucial element in a successful seminar
is the mutual sharing of ideas, information, and insights by members of the
class. You will not be an effective
participant if you merely sit and absorb others' comments. Students are expected to attend every class,
without exception! Should a
legitimate emergency occur, contact me immediately.
GRADING:
Weekly
discussions, presentations, and papers will count 60%. The formal presentation and final paper will
count 40%.
Weekly
reports and written assignments must be presented on time since the whole class
depends upon their information. Note
that a summary of the final paper is to be presented to the class; thus, it too
cannot be late. There is no flexibility
in these deadlines, so plan ahead.
Please
review the following expectations carefully.
*****************
ENGLISH 492 SEMINAR EXPECTATIONS
I. The
general weekly responsibilities include (1) completing the reading
assignments before the class meeting, (2) writing the assigned
short paper or preparing handouts for oral presentations, and may include (3)
recitation of a
Explications
should always comment on the poem's meaning and relevant stylistic
features. They should consult the
Johnson and Franklin variorum editions (1955 and 1998), the Manuscript Books,
as well as resources such as the concordance to
Each
student is expected to recite at least one
Each
student is expected to contribute significantly to each class discussion. The class leader will assign other students
particular areas of concentration for that week. It will be each student's responsibility to
inform the leader of the poem he or she has chosen to explicate.
II. While
student leaders should feel free to be as creative as possible in organizing
activities for their seminar session, the major leadership responsibility always
includes the following activities:
1)
reading all assignments soon enough to be able to
complete the other duties;
2) delegating and
coordinating all student contributions to the seminar session including any written explications, oral reports, or
recitations;
3)
suggesting additional theoretical readings, if needed;
4)
assigning specific students areas of concentration for
the session; for example:
*presenting
research information to the class when appropriate, especially
contemporary
critical readings
*establishing
the biographical context for the work(s) being discussed
*researching
and reporting any historical and cultural events that may inform the
interpretation of the text;
5)
effectively leading the class, which includes
balancing the presentation of useful information with complete student
participation in the class discussion (i.e. the leaders should not dominate,
but should engage the whole group in exploring the topics).
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Th. Jan. 15 Introduction to the course, its focus and
methodologies;
overview of
introduction to textual versions of the poems. Meet in Chambers 337 for a PowerPoint
lecture, followed by discussion of the texts in the Rare Book Room.
Th. Jan. 22 Possibility: 10 Poems by
Critical
Essays 1-39; 130-40
Miller A Poet's Grammar 1-112—Read
this text carefully, noting any questions you may have about Miller’s
linguistic approach to poetic analysis.
consult Brita Lindberg-Seyersted The
Voice of the Poet (on reserve)
Writing
assignment: Choose one poem to explicate (let this poem be one that's "new"
to you, that is, one you've not explicated in another class); focus on
Dickinson's language in your individual explication, using Miller’s approach as
a model. N.B.: For all explications,
you must research the various versions of the poems using Johnson (1955),
On
or before Jan. 19, please check the list on my office door;
write your poem number beside your name; if someone has
already
signed up for the poem you want to write about, choose
another.
Th. Jan. 29 Finding a Worthy Reader:
Dickinson and Higginson
Read
all
Sewall 532-67 (on reserve)
Habegger 451-59, 522-24, 553-55
Higginson. "Letter to a Young Contributor." Atlantic Monthly (April
1862):
26, 402-411. (on reserve)
Handbook
44-60; 163-80 (on reserve)
Writing
assignment: Write an explication of
one of the poems ED
included in a letter to TWH and (based upon TWH's criticism of ED in the
letters) conjecture how he might have assessed the poem.
Check
sign up sheet on or before Jan. 26.
Th. Feb. 5 Influences:
Poems by Others Paired with Poems by ED
Critical
Essays 40-52
A
Poet's Grammar 131-59
Handbook
93-109; 224-39 (on reserve)
"A
Sheaf of Poems" (on reserve)
See
reserve packet for particular essays on Brontë and Rosetti as well as
selections of poems from which to choose.
Writing
assignment: Exploration and Report
Choose
one influence (see assignment sheet for choices) and connect that writer's work
to
Th. Feb. 12 “The Arc of a Lover’s Conjecture”: Poems about
Love
"The
Master Letters" (Letters)
Critical
Essays 76-88
Habegger 350-51; 416-21; 569-601
Sewall 512-31 (on reserve)
Handbook
258 -72; 342-55; 427-39 (on reserve)
Writing
Assignment: Explicate a
Check
sign up sheet on or before Feb. 09; leaders consult.
Th. Feb. 19 Dickinson and Her Contemporaries
Critical
Essays 248-59; 206-224
Sewall 577-92 (on reserve)
Emerson.
"The Poet" (on reserve)
Whitman.
"Preface to 1855 Leaves of Grass" (on reserve)
See
Petrino Emily Dickinson and Her
Contemporaries
Chapters
1,2, 5, 6, 7 (on reserve)
See
St. Armand Emily
Dickinson and Her Culture 39-77 (on
reserve) for further material
See
Culture
before 1900 (on reserve)
See
Nineteenth-Century American Women Poets: An Anthology, Ed. Paula
Bennett
for poems by other women writers (on reserve)
Handbook 224-39;
183-96 (on reserve)
Oral
Reports (with appropriate handouts):
Choose one woman poet who was a
Check
sign up sheet on or before Feb. 16.
Th. Feb. 26 Poet/Woman Poet
A
Poet's Grammar 160-86;
Rich
"Vesuvius At Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson" (on reserve);
Gelpi "Emily Dickinson and the Deerslayer: The Dilemma of the Woman Poet in
Handbook 323-41
Critical Essays 119-29
Writing
assignment: Choose a poem about poetry;
explicate it focusing on
gender.
Check
sign up sheet on or before Feb. 23.
Th. Mar. 11 “The One who could repeat the Summer
day”: Poetry as Art
A
Poet's Grammar 113-30
Sewall 706-25 (on reserve)
Critical
Essays 248- 59; 206-224
See Judith Farr The Passion of
Emily Dickinson (on reserve);
Handbook
61-92; 273-95 (on reserve)
Writing assignment: Choose one poem about some form of
art. Write an explication that explores
the poem’s language and form focusing on the poem's revelations of that
particular art. What relationship does
the poem have to the art of poetry?
Check
sign up sheet on or before March 7.
Formal Prospectus of Seminar Paper Due by
Th. Mar. 18 Gatherings of Poems: Fascicles, Little Books, &
Tomes
Critical
Essays 240-47
(on reserve)
Handbook
113-60 (on reserve)
Oral presentation. Be prepared to
discuss one fascicle, showing its relation to individual poems by locating one
poem you have previously explicated and situating it in the context of the
fascicle in which it appears. Provide appropriate handouts for the class.
Th. Mar. 25 Visiting Emily.
After reading the poems by contemporary poets, be prepared to discuss
one in thorough detail with the class.
Make appropriate connections to the poet’s life (use Habegger)
and to critical theory (use earlier essays).
Check the sign up sheet on my office door on or before Mar. 22.
Th. Apr. 01 Oral Presentations of seminar paper (20 minute
limit, followed by 15 minutes discussion)
Th. Apr. 08 Oral Presentations of seminar paper (20 minute
limit, followed by 15 minutes discussion)
Th. Apr. 15 Individual Conferences (recitations of poems and discussion
of final essays).
Check
the sign up sheet on my office door for times.
Th. Apr. 22
Bring
an original poem in the "spirit" of
Th. Apr. 29 Concluding discussion and
class evaluations
Th. May 06 Final
Draft of Seminar Paper Due by