Prof. dr. Martha Nell-Smith
Dickinson, a User's Guide.
In any period, some poetry will discover that which can only be done in and as writing by using new technical means available, while other poetry will bring into the present of writing the forms and motifs of previous technological and historical moments. Neither approach is invalid just as neither is surefire, but evaluating one approach by the criteria derived from the other is misguided (Bernstein "The Art of Immemorability"). The subject of this talk is to muse on that critical observation by Charles Bernstein and upon a task I have undertaken (to write a a short introduction to Emily Dickinson for Blackwell's Introductions to Literature in order to offer some reflections on the status and reach of the author Emily Dickinson, the state of Dickinson studies, the state of digital humanities, and some of the broader implications of each for twenty-first century literature, culture, and education, for the importance and meaning of poetry.
Martha Nell-Smith (mnsmith@umd.edu) is professor of English and Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. She is the general editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives and has written and edited many books and articles on Emily Dickinson.
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