A Political Companion to Walt Whitman

John E. Seery

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780813147376, 9780813126548
• eBook ISBN: 9780813126555
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The works of Walt Whitman have been described as masculine, feminine, postcolonial, homoerotic, urban, organic, unique, and democratic, yet arguments about the extent to which Whitman could or should be considered a political poet have yet to be fully confronted. Some scholars disregard Whitman's understanding of democracy, insisting on separating his personal works from his political works.

A Political Companion to Walt Whitman is the first full-length exploration of Whitman's works through the lens of political theory. Editor John E. Seery and a collection of prominent theorists and philosophers uncover the political awareness of Whitman's poetry and prose, analyzing his faith in the potential of individuals, his call for a revolution in literature and political culture, and his belief in the possibility of combining heroic individualism with democratic justice. A Political Companion to Walt Whitman reaches beyond literature into political theory, revealing the ideology behind Whitman's call for the emergence of American poets of democracy.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Series page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Part II
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Part III
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• "Leaves of Grass" Frontispieces
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index