The pragmatic Whitman : reimagining American democracy

The pragmatic Whitman : reimagining American democracy / Stephen John Mack.

In this surprisingly timely book, Stephen Mack examines Whitman's particular and fascinating brand of patriotism: his far-reaching vision of democracy. For Whitman, loyalty to America was loyalty to democracy. Since the idea that democracy is not just a political process but a social and cultur...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mack, Stephen John, 1952-
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, ©2002.
Series:Iowa Whitman series.
Subjects:
Whitman, Walt, > 1819-1892 > Political and social views.
Whitman, Walt, > 1819-1892 > Knowledge > United States.
Whitman, Walt, > 1819-1892
Political poetry, American > History and criticism.
Patriotic poetry, American > History and criticism.
Democracy in literature.
LITERARY CRITICISM > Poetry.
Democracy in literature
Literature
Patriotic poetry, American
Political and social views
Political poetry, American
United States > In literature.
United States
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Online Access:Click for online access
Table of Contents:
  • Part I The metaphysics of democracy: Leaves of Grass, 1855-1856
  • "My voice goes aftr what my eyes can't reach : pragmatic language and the making of a democratic mythology
  • "What is less or more than a touch?": sensory experience and the democratic self
  • "The simple, cmpact well-join'd scheme": Whitman's democratic cosmos
  • "Not chaos or death ... it is form and union and plan": Laissez-faire and the problem of agency
  • Part II Crises and Revisions: "Sea-drift," "Calamus," Drum-taps, and sequel to drum-taps, 1859-1867
  • "The most perfect pilot": the problem of desire and the struggle for poetric agency
  • "To learn from the crises of anguish": tragedy, history and the meaning of democratic mourning
  • Part III Prophet of democracy: democratic vistas, 1871-- "the divine literature comes": religion and poetry in the cultication of democratic selfhood
  • conclusion: toward an organic democracy.

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