LITR 4232: American Renaissance

UHCL, spring 2002

Student Research Proposal

Diane Tincher

My current intentions for my research paper are to show how Whitman answered Emerson's call for an American poet, and more generally to show how Whitman in some ways embodied what Emerson was looking for in a poet when he was writing "The Poet." However, it is also obvious that Whitman very much went beyond just what Emerson was looking for, and from the reading that I have been doing it appears that there is some evidence that while Emerson was thrilled to have a truly American poet there were some aspects to Whitman's poetry that Emerson was not so thrilled about.

The two critical books that I am going to be concentrating the most on are "The Liberating Gods: Emerson on Poets and Poetry" by John Q. Anderson and "Emerson, Whitman, and the American Muse" by Jerome Loving

Please tell me if I am headed in the right direction.

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Dear Diane,

This is a good narrowing down of the topic you've been working with. You establish a base for thinking of the two authors together, then you nicely complicate the issue by suggesting how Whitman did or didn't answer Emerson's call. Good research sources, too. Proceed.