Tuesdays: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm| Oct. 22 and 29
Location: Zoom
Leader: Sarah Traphagen | Facilitator: Don Melander

E – Open Heart | Surgery: Walt Whitman and Civil War Medicine

The Civil War was a medical disaster. Both the Union and Confederacy were unprepared to care for battle-broken and diseased bodies. Poet Walt Whitman immersed himself within this context in the nation’s capital’s hospitals, tending to the ill, wounded, and dying. He gave voice to all that he witnessed, which captured the impact of the war’s medical circumstances. This two-part course begins with a historical lecture that will detail the realities of wartime medicine. Next, we will thread the hospitals with Whitman through his poetry and prose to illuminate the heart-work of the aftermath. All readings will be supplied.

Sarah Traphagen received her PhD in English from the University of Florida. Her areas of expertise are American literature, history, and Civil War medicine. She has published in The Journal of Military Experience and The Journal of Working-Class Studies. She has taught at the University of Florida and in college preparatory schools. Currently, she is raising her son in NH.