Study Group Details
662: “Death” to Dickinson, Her Circle, and Ours
Wednesday1:45 - 3:15
Starting September 28
In-Person
“Of Death I try to think like this,” said Emily Dickinson four years before her death 130 years ago, beginning one of hundreds of poems exploring the topic close to the minds of OLLI members as well as to Longfellow, Holmes, Whitman, Whittier, Emerson, and others in Dickinson’s day. How can we approach our own “Dialogue between/ The Spirit and the Dust” using the often self-contradictory but provocative, piquant, and promising words of such poets? What may we learn about poetry, philosophy, and theology? Some biographical and literary history will accompany what will mostly be a close look at selected poems in selected groupings within books and handouts.
This study group is new
Class Type: Lecture and Discussion
Class Format: TBA
Hours of Reading: 1-2 hrs/week
Study Group Leader(s):
Eleanor Heginbotham
Eleanor Heginbotham, PhD, who has led 12 previous OLLI study groups, has “professed” 19th century American Literature around the world. She is published widely on Emily Dickinson.
Reading List
Emily Dickinson's Poems As She Preserved Them (editor) Cristanne Miller (Emily Dickinson) | 2016: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | ISBN: 978-0-674-73796-9 | Required
The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Emily Dickinson) | 1998: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | ISBN: 9-674-67624-6 | Required
Any biography of Emily Dickinson (read prior to first class) (various) | Recommended