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

Author
Mack, Stephen John, 1952- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, ©2002.
Description
xxii, 182 pages ; 24 cm.

Availability

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Firestone Library - Stacks PS3242.P64 M33 2002 Browse related items Request

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    Summary note
    "For Whitman, loyalty to America was loyalty to democracy. Since the idea that democracy is not just a political process but a social and cultural process as well is associated with American pragmatism, Mack relies on the pragmatic tradition of Emerson, James, Dewey, Mead, and Rorty to demonstrate the ways in which Whitman resides in this tradition." "Mack describes the foundation of Whitman's democracy as found in the 1855 and 1856 editions of Leaves of Grass, examines the ways in which Whitman's 1859 sexual crisis and the Civil War transformed his democratic poetics in "Sea-Drift," "Calamus," Drum-Taps, and Sequel to Drum-Taps, and explores Whitman's mature vision in Democratic Vistas, concluding with observations on its moral and political implications today. Throughout, he illuminates Whitman's great achievement - learning that a full appreciation for the complexities of human life meant understanding that liberty can take many different and conflicting forms - and allows us to contemplate the relevance of that achievement at the beginning of the twenty-first century."--Jacket.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-178) and index.
    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.
    ISBN
    • 0877458227 ((alk. paper))
    • 9780877458227 ((alk. paper))
    LCCN
    2002021137
    OCLC
    49386053
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