by Rachel Pappalardo, Digital Communications Intern
Associate Professor Eliza Richards has recently released her second academic monograph titled Battle Lines: Poetry and Mass Media in the U.S. Civil War. Battle Lines charts the transformation of Civil War poetry and its symbiotic relationship with the development of mass media networks and modern warfare. Focusing primarily on the North, Richards sheds light on how poetry’s condensed form traveled with greater ease and speed than journalism, novels, or essays. Ephemeral print media publishing poetry reached writers such as Whitman, Melville, and Dickinson, who drew inspiration from their peers’ poetic practices and reconfigured them in ways that showcased evidence of their involvement.
Professor Richards writes about and teaches 19th century American literature and culture, with special attention paid to the poetry of the time. In her previous book, Gender and the Poetics of Reception in Poe’s Circle, Richards revises contemporary mythology of Edgar Allan Poe through the exploration of his collaborations and rivalries with his female contemporaries (Sarah Helen Whitman, Frances Sargent Osgood, and Elizabeth Oakes Smith) in the context of nineteenth-century lyric practices.
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities will hold a celebration for their Faculty and Academic Leadership Fellows, to honor their achievements in publishing books, compositions, art, films, and digital projects completed in 2018. This celebration will be held January 22 at the University Room at Hyde Hall from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Professor Richards will be honored for her scholarly efforts with Battle Lines: Poetry and Mass Media in the U.S. Civil War. All are encouraged to RSVP here by January 18th.
