Keep in
mind that we're not expecting brand-new hitherto unknown scholarship about any
of this.
Also
keep in mind that we're in a "Creative writing" course whose purpose
is to think of these two writers from the standpoint of what you yourself can
gain from examining their writing, as writing.
Big ole profound original publish-it-in-PMLA
scholarship--not the purpose. All the
talk about either Dickey's background, psychology,
politics, etc., is context--you have your own context.
What
we're after is not JD's or CD's WHAT (content) so much as HOW (craft) they
write what they write.
One
way--not the only way--is to start with a close reading of something you're
interested in, something that leads you to think constructively about your own
writing--a single poem from JD, a single chapter from CD, something that
registers with your own experience of writing.
No need
to be swamped by this, you know--just a course, a tributary to the river of
your own development as a writer.
Esperance!
--RWH,