Seeing to See: The Non-Teleological Poetics of Dickinson and Thoreau(Becoming Modern: Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century)

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 reframes their work and how readers think of nature, accepting, as these authors did, the potential freedom of the unknown.

About the Author :
Daniel A. Nelson is a writing assessment specialist at OnRamps at the University of Texas at Austin. His scholarship has appeared in Arizona Quarterly, Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, and The Emily Dickinson Journal.

Review :
“Nelson’s book makes a significant critical contribution to current scholarly conversations. His prose is polished (very readable, even entertaining), his engagement with relevant scholarly sources is robust, and his arguments are responsible and cogent. Readers interested in Thoreau and in Dickinson should find much value in this book.” - John Hay, author of Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature

“Nelson thinks clearly and writes with authority. His scholarship and his characterization of other scholars’ work is insightful and judicious.” - Renée Bergland, author of Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science