October 21, 2022
A digitally made collage of paper with cursive writing, with a hand-drawn style drawing of Emily Dickinson.
In Alexandra Socarides’ honors tutorial course, “Emily Dickinson: On the Page and the Screen,” students delve into the life of a literary icon through a recent television series, “Dickinson.”

There are few other poets who embody themes of tradition and transformation as innately as Emily Dickinson does.

From contemplating the complexities of death and mortality to the relationship between humans and nature, Dickinson’s poetry examines several themes that were both unique to her life yet remain relevant today. Her distinct writing style and emotional eloquence have set profound literary examples for writers after her.

Alexandra Socarides stands outside Jesse Hall.
Alexandra Socarides stands outside Jesse Hall in Columbia on Oct. 22, 2022. Socarides teaches the honors tutorial course “Emily Dickinson: On the Page and the Screen” at MU. Photo by Grace Burwell.

Dr. Alexandra Socarides, Associate Provost for Academic Programs at MU and long-time scholar of 19th century American poetry, decided to teach a class dedicated entirely to Dickinson for that reason.

“Her poems are so different from other people’s poems [in] that she also has this kind of uniqueness,” Socarides said. “She created tradition that she’s also kind of outside of.”

Last semester, Socarides taught the first installment of an honors tutorial course on Dickinson’s poetry in conjunction with the biopic television series “Dickinson.” The first season was released in 2019 with the final season concluding in December 2021 –– just in time for Socarides’ students to watch the show and compare episodes to Dickinson’s poetry.

“I had heard that the show had a following and was really getting a whole new generation of people into Emily Dickinson,” Socarides said. “So I thought, ‘Well, let’s try this with a bunch of college students and see what happens.’”

Socarides’ connection to Dickinson and to the series runs deep. Not only has Socarides taught Emily Dickinson’s writing in the honors humanities sequence at MU for years, she is also a long-time friend and colleague of Alena Smith, the creator of “Dickinson.”

As a member of the Emily Dickinson International Society and the author of a book and several articles on Dickinson’s poetry, Socarides also contributed feedback during the writing of the show’s first episode.

Ultimately, it was Smith’s mutual passion for the subject that inspired Socarides to teach the course.

“I don’t know if I would have done it if I didn’t have that connection to Alena,” she said.

The class began last spring, and Socarides selected six students to participate in the first semester of “Emily Dickinson: On the Page and the Screen.”

Senior Colton Hicks was one of the students in Socarides’ tutorial. Hicks, who is studying English and creative poetry, enjoyed the course’s dichotomy between literature and film.

“I do love how Dr. Socarides incorporated [the poetry],” Hicks said. “I think she did a really good job of balancing the two.”

As part of the coursework, students watched three episodes of “Dickinson” every week, beginning the tutorial with the first season and ending it with the third and final one. Each class, students also led discussion on the episodes using Dickinson’s poetry as a guide.

The class structure not only allowed students to absorb Dickinson’s writing through a variety of media, but also to understand her life in a more nuanced, comprehensive way beyond historical facts.

“As a poet, it was really cool seeing an actual television show being made about poetry with poets at the heart of the show,” Hicks said. “It made me really excited that it’s probably going to get a lot of people who wouldn’t usually be exposed to poetry [interested], even if it’s just Emily Dickinson.”

One notable aspect of the course included discussions between Socarides and her students about how fictional portrayals of Dickinson’s life, such as “Dickinson,” compare to what historians know about her.

“I think the creative freedom [of the show] was probably one of my favorite themes we talked about,” Hicks said.

The series follows a young Emily Dickinson, played by Hailee Steinfeld, as she navigates life in Amherst, Massachusetts before the start of the Civil War. Each season focuses on a different theme or aspect of Dickinson’s identity, such as her struggle with fame, her relationships with family and the development of her poetry over the years.

“Dickinson” blends historical elements with fantastical, sometimes dreamlike occurrences. It isn’t unsual to witness conversations between Steinfeld’s character and a human personification of Death (played by a ghoulishly suave Wiz Khalifa), surrealistic encounters with Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath, talking bumblebees or opium-laced dance parties.

Beyond its whimsical style, what sets “Dickinson” apart from other portrayals of the titular poet is its fluid incorporation of her writing into the fabric of the show. Episodes are titled after individual poems and thoughtfully depict Dickinson’s process of creating — and rewriting — her life’s work.

“I think there’s something really powerful in seeing a creative life lived,” Socarides said. “It makes students remember that this isn’t just some dead person who wrote poems 150 years ago, but it just makes that process and that struggle very present.”

Socarides’ tutorial did just that.

“It didn’t feel like I was working when we had our conversations, and that’s kind of teaching at its best,” she said.

Socarides plans to teach “Emily Dickinson: On the Page and the Screen” again in the spring of 2023. She hopes that, by studying the past through creative mediums such as poetry, film and television, her students will gain a better understanding of their present.

“Poetry is a kind of art of delayed gratification, and yet, if you can commit to a poem, there’s such depth to it,” Socarides said. “Part of why I think it’s important to teach poetry is just because I want to give students access to that world … [Dickinson is] a great way to do that.”

Edited by Egan Ward | eward@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Emily Rutledge

Comments

The Maneater has the right to remove comments that do not comply with policies surrounding hate speech.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content