ENGL4790: Topics in American Literature (59638)

Marrs, Cody

MWF 3 :00 PM

Park Hall 0144


Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

 

This course explores the writings of two of the most innovative poets of the nineteenth century: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. We will read nearly all of their poems -- major, minor, and inbetween -- and examine the development of Whitman and Dickinson's style, influences, and ideas. As we read them together across the arc of their careers, we will attempt to answer the following questions: What do Whitman and Dickinson reveal about the origins and evolution of American poetry? What do we learn from Whitman and Dickinson about nature, friendship, language, consciousness, and relationship between life and death?