Author Description
Intro -- Halftitle Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Table Of Contents -- List Of Figures -- List Of Abbreviations Of Whitman's Works -- 1. Whitman, Washington, And The Convulsiveness Of Civil War -- 2. Whitman As A Paradoxical Missionary To The Wounded -- The Missionary And Transmission: Scribal Writing And Fluid Identity -- Sacred Bereavement And The Complexities Of Remembering And Forgetting -- 3. Strayed Cattle: Anti-pastoralism In Whitman's War Writings -- American Pastoralism -- Cattle, Chattel, And The Anti-pastoral The Pastoral Hut, The Urban Shanty, And The Grand Mausoleum -- 4. Social Calamity, Personal Perturbations, And Office Decorum: How Leaves Of Grass Grew Pensive -- 5. Multi-racial Democracy And Black Democratic Vistas -- Whitman's Silences -- From Blue Ontario's Shore To Democratic Vistas -- Andrew Johnson, The Klan, And Whitman's Postwar Vistas -- Why Did He Ossify And Can We Learn From The Late Whitman? -- The Paradoxes Of A National Poet -- Works Cited -- Index Kenneth M. Price. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Oxford Available Via World Wide Web.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How did Walt Whitman’s residence in Washington, D.C., during and after the Civil War fundamentally reshape his identity as a national poet? Kenneth M. Price, a scholar of American literature, examines the intersection of Whitman’s personal experiences in the federal city with the political and social upheavals of the era. By analyzing Whitman’s war writings, correspondence, and evolving poetry, Price argues that the poet’s time in Washington served as a crucible for his democratic vision and his eventual ideological shifts.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of Whitman’s work as a volunteer nurse and government clerk in Washington.
- Examination of the influence of the Civil War on the development of Leaves of Grass.
- Investigation into Whitman’s changing views on race, democracy, and the Reconstruction era.
- Discussion of the tension between Whitman’s pastoral ideals and the urban reality of the capital.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive biography of Whitman’s entire life, focusing primarily on the Washington years.
- It does not offer a complete literary analysis of every poem in the Whitman canon.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of Whitman’s later career and the political context of his writing. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is well-suited for researchers and students of 19th-century American literature.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
1900-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
0191876542
ISBN-13:
9780191876547
Poetry
Biography
American History
Literary Criticism
Poets American
Civil War