Compare Dickinson’s works and approach to an artist from another era and/or medium. You can write about a painter, poet, songwriter, performer, producer, director, or even an athlete or an architect who has been considered “ahead of his/her time” or who has approached his/her craft from a new and unique angle.

Unconventional Artists – Essay

Several of the writers we have studied this semester are considered iconoclastic or avant-garde for a number of reasons; some developed new genres of writing, while others took unique approaches to their craft. Consider Rousseau, for example, who developed what we now consider the modern autobiography. The deeply personal content and his introspective approach was unheard of in his day, but we have come to expect those very features in modern autobiographical works. Wordsworth shared intense personal experiences in his poetry—again, an unusual effort at the time, but something we consider typical today. Voltaire, Dickinson, Keats—these writers experimented with form, theme, and perspective, and their genius, to some extent, was not completely recognized or appreciated in their time. Emily Dickinson was, perhaps, the most unconventional poet of her era, and her talents are still recognized today.

For your essay, compare Dickinson’s works and approach to an artist from another era and/or medium. You can write about a painter, poet, songwriter, performer, producer, director, or even an athlete or an architect who has been considered “ahead of his/her time” or who has approached his/her craft from a new and unique angle. The options are practically unlimited.

Your task is to compare the two artists and show that in every art form, and in every era, artists have come along who defy expectations and introduce new forms to their field. Sometimes those new forms are embraced immediately, while others take a bit longer to become accepted. Later, we look back and realize how ground-breaking those individuals’ efforts were.