Poetry of Walt Whitman (Hardcover)  | Released: 2009

The present anthology of interpretative essays and research papers is a unique effort to approach the great nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman with new critical insights and viewpoints. The papers have been contributed by erudite scholars from different countries of the world. These contemporary points of view proffer new ways to understanding the poet whose simplicity is too enormously complex. The poet has been discussed for his poetics, politics, eroticism, philosophy, metaphysics, and many other important issues. As the poet Walt Whitman is prescribed in the syllabi of universities and colleges across the globe, the book will prove immensely useful to the students and teachers of English and researchers in the field of American literature and poetry.Table of Contents: Preface; Introduction; 1. Democracy and Diction: The First Leaves of Grass and the Future of American PoetryJay Ladin; 2. Justify Me!: Walt Whitman in the American Protest Literature TraditionZoe Trodd; 3. Not So Black and White: Walt Whitmans Racial Views RevisitedXilao Li; 4. Whitmans Paradox: The Philosophy of Democracy and the Poetics of SubjugationKristie H. Camacho; 5. Walt Whitman: An Inadequate CommunicatorJian-Zhong Lin; 6. Spiritual Metamorphoses: The Transformation of Transcendentalism to Existentialism through Walt WhitmanRachel Season McCoppin; 7. Walt Whitman and the Value of FriendshipJ.D. Mininger and Brynnar Swenson; 8. Equality, Freedom and Ethical Self-culture: Whitmans Vision of Democracy in Song of the Open RoadKanwar Dinesh Singh; 9. Arousefor you must justify me: The Influence of Walt Whitman on Contemporary Scottish PoetryGrace Elizabeth Wetzel; 10. Erotic Desire and Walt Whitmans Aesthetic and Political IdeologySrirupa Chatterjee; 11. Democracy and Divine Difference: Whitmans Calamus PoemsH. Suzanne Heagy; 12. Whitmans Song of Myself: A Synthesis of ContradictionsKanwar Dinesh Singh; Contributors