美国文学史及作品选读PPT5.pptVIP

General Introduction to Whitman and Dickinson * Lecture 5 American Romanticism and New England Literature: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman ( 1819-1892) Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Differences (P96) Sameness (P88) (Walt Whitman) (Emily Dickinson) ● Thematically, extolled an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism, and its Americanness, part of “American Renaissance”. ● Two major poets in late 19th century. ● Technically, added to literary independence, pioneers of modern American poetry. back ● In outlook, Whitman is “national” while Dickinson is “regional”. ● Thematically, Whitman keeps his eye on society, while Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual ● In form, Whitman’s endless, all-inclusive catalogs contrast with Dickinson’s concise, direct, and simple diction and syntax back Themes in Whitman’s Poetry ● Advocating the realization of the individual value ● Showing concern for the whole hard-working people and the burgeoning life of cities ● Pursuing love, happiness and sex love ● Political commitment Whitman’s great work: Leaves of Grass ● Went through 9 editions: 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871, 1876, 1881, 1889, 1891-92. (Marking the birth of true American poetry) ● The first edition: 12 poems, not sold well but made a stir on the American literary scene. Because it broke with the poetic convention and expressed the pleasures of sex and the sensuality of the body, it was criticized as “noxious weeds”, “poetry of barbarism”. ● Whitman extols the ideals of equality, democracy, the dignity, the self-reliant spirit, and the joy of the common man, the expansion of America with its dynamic creative fertility and its indomitable energy. ● Leaves of Grass is an Adamic song. Whitman’s Poetics ● Whitman’s poetic style is marked, first of all, by the use of the poetic “I” (usually a triangular relationship: “I” the poet, subject in the poem and “you” the reader. ● Whitman is also radically innovative in terms of the for