Seeing to see : the non-teleological poetics of Dickinson and Thoreau / Daniel A. Nelson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nelson, Daniel A., author.

Series:

Becoming modern (University of Massachusetts Press)

Becoming modern : studies in the long nineteenth century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickinson, Emily.

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862--Criticism and interpetation.

Genre:

Critiques litteraires.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 176 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Seeing to See focuses on two American authors who are notoriously hard to classify: Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau. Dickinson proves challenging due to her short and obscure poems and Thoreau due to his insistence on capturing even the most seemingly mundane information. Daniel A. Nelson uncovers evidence that the works of these authors are often intentionally and painstakingly without aim or purpose. He argues that in their texts there is in fact an avoidance of teleological structures of writing and thinking, whereby a thing's--or a word's, or a text's--value hinges on its relation to the world or other contexts. In Nelson's reading, Thoreau and Dickinson seem to be able to set aside all thought of distinct personal and professional goals, through which readers typically try to make an overarching sense out of, and to derive some form of profit from, disparate experiences, events, actions, and feelings. Further, both authors seem to be able to get outside of the worldview according to which the value and meaning of something, be it a natural object, a word, or an experience, is a function of its participation in a larger system. Examples of such systems include an ecosystem, taxonomic system, or syntactic system; a writer's career, or life, or philosophy; even a single poem or journal entry. In the absence of such connections to broader categorical spheres, both writers force readers to contemplate the ineffable, constantly changing relation between words and the natural world. This contemporary reading of two iconic writers re-frames their work and how readers think of nature, accepting, as these authors did, the potential freedom of the unknown"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Seeing to See

Non-Teleological Poetics

Chapter 1: The Uncanny Return of the Ordinary Thoreau and Dickinson

Turning Away

Why Dickinson and Thoreau Elude Classification

Teleological Interpretations of Dickinson and Thoreau

Non-Teleological Interpretations of Dickinson and Thoreau

Chapter 2: "Distance - be her only Motion"

A "Word-Centered" Poetry

"Confident Despair"

The Limits of Interpretation

"Circumference Between"

Chapter 3: "Between Poetry and Natural Fact

Three Contradictions

"Forgotten, as Fulfilled"

Chapter 4: Two Models of Disinterestedness, Part 1

Thoreau's Volatile Subject

Thoreau's Meditations

Chapter 5: Two Models of Disinterestedness, Part 2

Dickinson's Small Subject

Coda on Dickinson and Modernism

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1685751326

OCLC:

1524422096