The poems and letters of Emily Dickinson, arguably the most important American poet of the nineteenth century, provide a window into one of the most thrilling and idiosyncratic minds in literature. Dickinson lived her entire adult life in her family's elegant home on the main street of Amherst, Massachusetts, writing in her spacious bedroom through the night. The house and its views, as well as its gardens and paths, are all vivid presences in her work. Dickinson hand-wrote all of her poems on paper she scavenged around the house; scholars are still debating how to read and interpret her hand-done poems. To study Dickinson is to be confronted with questions that seem sometimes more forensic than literary critical. We will explore Dickinson's online archives and visit, several times, her house and gardens in Amherst. This course should appeal not only to lovers of poetry but to lovers of old houses, scrapbooks, ghost stories, and the material history of the New England region.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Open to all students who have taken two courses in the department, at least one of which must be 200 level, or by permission of the instructor to other qualified students.

Instructor: Chiasson

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.