Wilson to Instruct Two Courses On Civil War Writings, Language

Edmund Wilson--critic, historian and novelist--will teach two courses here next year. The first, a full year undergraduate course limited to 100 students, will deal with the literature of the Civil War; the other, a one-term graduate seminar, will investigate the use of language in literature.

Recently appointed the second Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of English, Wilson will base his undergraduate course on his nearly completed book, which surveys writings of the Civil War period. He will deal with the works of authors from Harriet Beecher Stowe to the elder Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The course will cover the full scope of Civil War literature, including fiction, poetry, military memoirs, diaries, and letters. In presenting his material, Wilson said yesterday, "I expect to read and then talk to the class directly."

While teaching at the University, Wilson expects to put his book into final form. It has been his experience in the past "that students' questions and opinions are a great help in determining some of the things I should use."

Linguistic Effects Stressed

Wilson's graduate seminar, which will "start with onomatopoeia and go on to more complex things," will resemble one he taught at Smith during the war. He will deal with linguistic effects, "from the sound of bells to James Joyce."

Reading for the course will depend, to a great extent, upon the courses students are taking. After studying a few basic works which exemplify rhetorical devices, students will analyze their other readings in terms of linguistic effects.

During the Fall term, Wilson will devote two hours a week to his graduate seminars and two to undergraduate lectures. But in the Spring, the undergraduate Civil War course will have two lectures and two seminars each week.

A few years ago, Wilson wrote a best selling book on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Before traveling to Israel to research the scrolls, he mastered Hebrew in a little more than one month.

He has also written novels, plays, collections of criticism, and a discussion of the socialist movement, To The Finland Station.