FF:AJL25001 Emily Dickinson - Course Information

AJL25001 Emily Dickinson

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

Mon 18:00–19:40 G32, except Mon 13. 11.

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 11/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 21 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

This course will examine the various canonical, stylistic, socio-cultural, and other issues surrounding the cardinal American poet, Emily Dickinson. It will include discussions of her life and writings, placing both within the context of American 19th-century personality formulation, identity, and poetry.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to evaluate critically the canonical, stylistic, socio-cultural, and other issues surrounding a writer such as Emily Dickinson, discuss the writings of others with sensitivity and appreciation, and have a greater understanding of the contexts of American 19th-century poetry.

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction. Week 2: Read “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” (288), “We play at Paste” (320), “Why make it doubt—it hurts it so—” (462), “This World is not Conclusion” (501), “Nature and God—I neither knew” (835), and “A loss of something ever felt I” (959). Week 3: Read “The Murmur of a Bee” (155), “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—” (401), “If What we could—” (407), “I read my sentence steadily” (412), “A charm invests a face” (421), “It was given to me by the Gods—” (454), “To think I was enchanted” (593), “Title divine—is mine” (1072), “Witchcraft as hung, in History” (1583), “They talk as slow as Legends grow” (1697), and “To tell the beauty would decrease” (1700). Week 4: Read “I like a look of Agony” (241), “I died for Beauty—” (449), “I was the slightest in the House—” (486), “’Twas warm at first, like us” (519), “I fear a man of frugal speech” (543), “Delight—becomes pictorial—” (572), “Let Us play Yesterday—” (728), “The Wind begun to knead the Grass—” (824), “My best acquaintances are those” (932), and “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—” (1129). Week 5: Read “There is a word” (8), “This was a Poet—” (448), “I would not paint—a picture—” (505), “They shut me up in Prose—” (613), “Don’t put up my Thread and Needle” (617), “‘Nature’ is what we see—” (668), “A word is dead” (1212), “A word dropped careless on a page” (1261), “There is no Frigate like a Book” (1263), “A little Madness in the Spring” (1333), and “He ate and drank the precious Words” (1587). Week 6: Read “‘Faith’ is a fine invention” (185), “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” (280), “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House” (389), “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” (465), “Better—than Music!” (503), “Because I could not stop for Death—” (712), “The Bible is an antique Volume—” (1545), “To her derided Home” (1586), and “The grave my little cottage is” (1743). Week 7: Read “For every Bird a Nest” (143), “Why—do they shut Me out of Heaven?” (248), “I tie my Hat—I crease my Shawl—” (443), “There is a pain—so utter—” (599), “Of nearness to her sundered Things” (607), “The Way I read a Letter’s—this—” (636), “Promise This—When You be Dying—” (648), “Their Hight in Heaven comforts not—” (696), “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—” (754), and “The Rat is the concisest Tenant” (1356). Week 8: Read “One Sister have I in our house” (14), “I’m ‘wife’—I’ve finished that—” (199), “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—” (216), “There came a Day at Summer’s full” (322), “She lay as if at play” (369), “The heart asks Pleasure—” (536), “I cannot live with You—” (640), “A Bee his burnished Carriage” (1339), “Shame is the shawl of Pink” (1412), and “In Winter in my Room” (1670). Week 9: Read “Going to Heaven!” (79), “These are the days when Birds come back—” (130), “Dust is the only Secret—” (153), “A Bird came down the Walk” (328), “I know that He exists” (338), “I saw no Way—The Heavens were stitched—” (378), “The Frost of Death was on the Pane” (1136), “Abraham to kill him” (1317), and “Of God we ask one favor” (1601). Week 10: Read “The Gentian weaves her fringes” (18), “The Soul selects her own Society” (303), “There is a Languor of the Life” (396), “The first Day’s Night had come” (410), “I started Early—Took my Dog—” (520), “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” (986), “What mystery pervades a well!” (1400), “A Route of Evanescence” (1463), and “Apparently with no surprise” (1624). Week 11: Read “There’s something quieter than sleep” (45), “What is ‘Paradise’” (215), “Give little anguish” (310), “I found the Words to every thought” (581), “I like to see it lap the miles” (585), “Publication—is the Auction” (709), “All Circumstances are the Frame” (820), “A nearness to Tremendousness” (963), and “’Tis whiter than an Indian pipe” (1482). Week 12: “Success is counted sweetest” (67), “I never hear the word ‘Escape’” (77), “My friend must be a Bird—” (92), “The Soul’s Superior instants” (306), “Death sets a Thing significant” (360), “The Missing All, prevented Me” (985), “I never saw a Moor” (1052), “I am afraid to own a Body—” (1090), and “Elysium is as far as to” (1760). Week 13: Conclusion and discussion of the current state of the students’ “portfolios.”

Literature

required literature

LOEFFELHOLZ, Mary. The value of Emily Dickinson. First published. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 164 stran. ISBN 9781107445864. info
DICKINSON, Emily. The complete poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Thomas Herbert Johnson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960, xiii, 770. ISBN 0003551301. info

recommended literature

Polly Longsworth, The World of Emily Dickinson (Norton, 1990)
William Luce, The Belle of Amherst (Samuel French, 1991)
Jerome Charyn, A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century (Bellevue Literary Press, 2016)
R. W. Franklin, edited, The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Harvard University Press, 1999)
Martha Ackmann, These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson (W. W. Norton, 2020)
Gudrun Grabher, Roland Hagenbuchle and Cristanne Miller, edited, The Emily Dickinson Handbook (University of Massachusetts Press, 2005)
Alfred Habegger, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson (Random House, 2002)
Roger Lundin, Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (William B. Eerdmans, 2004)
Thomas H. Johnson, edited, Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters (Harvard University Press, 1958)

Teaching methods

Seminars, 100 minutes per week.

Assessment methods

For credit, students will be expected to write an essay (10 pages, typed, double-spaced), presented within a “portfolio framework” (to be explained during the introductory lesson). It should have a well-crafted thesis, should be scholarly in tone, and should endeavor to support all claims textually through the materials engaged during this course. There will also be weekly “response papers.” Final grades will be divided in the following proportion: 20% for attendance and class participation, 30% for the “response papers,” and 50% for the essay “portfolio.”

FF:AJL25001 Emily Dickinson - Course Information

AJL25001 Emily Dickinson

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