Part III (六) Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson 美国文学教材.pptVIP

Who? Theme: to extol an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Amercianness Technique: break free from the poetic convention and exhibit a freedom in form, contributing to the literary independence of the nation Walter Whitman(1819-1892) poet, essayist One of the greatest innovators in American literature: free verse: a new form of poem Life journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse politically committed embraces idealism relies on insight and intuition extols the ideas of equality and democracy celebrates the dignity, the self-reliant spirit and the joy of the common man responds enthusiastically to the expansion of America urges honest recognition of sensuality without shame, all in the name of the glory of the individual and the senses “The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.“ --- Whitman Influence “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that an American has yet contributed” a mountain in American literary history; common property of Western culture transition between Transcendentalism and realism: views the failure of democracy and the social and moral corruption in America as curable by the self-reform of the individual (personal morality, brotherhood) Major Works Leaves of Grass (first edition, 1855; fifth edition, 1871): collection of poetry “Song of Myself” “I Hear America Singing” “O Captain, My Captain” “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” “A Noiseless Patient Spider” … “Song of Myself” The poem was first published without sections. In the edition of 1856, Whitman used the title Poem of Walt Whitman, an American, which was shortened to Song of Myself in the 1860 edition. It was divided into fifty-two numbered sections in the 1867 edition. romanticism (Transcedentalism) and realism first-person narration: “I” in the poem → nature and common people no death (mystic) re