Interdisciplinary Arts 0278 - Emily Dickinson's Radical Poetics

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published very little in her lifetime, yet she left behind a body of work that continues to intrigue, engage, and inspire. In this workshop, we will consider Dickinson's life in light of the personal pressures and national upheavals that marked it, and the ways in which her writing-both poems and letters-charted what she called "circumference," the whole of existence, from the tiniest insects to the depths of human yearning, to the motion of the stars in the sky, and beyond. Informed by readings of her poems, critical explorations of her work, and poems by contemporary poets obliquely or directly in conversation with Dickinson's work, participants will explore questions of family, freedom, violence, labor, death, religion, desire, illness, time, and place, creating poems that chart a movement from their own here and now, out toward what Dickinson described as a realm "Beyond the Dip of Bell -." (keywords: creative writing, literature, interdisciplinary arts, American studies)

Time and Narrative This course includes both in-person and remote elements, but can accommodate fully remote students. Students in this course can expect to spend 6 to 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.