A study of the significance of Walt Whitman's use of geography in Leaves of Grass.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This dissertation examines the photographs created by Edward Weston during his travels through the United States in 1941 and intended for a luxury reprint of Walt Whitman's Leaves ofGrass published by the Limited Editions Club in 1942. By contrasting the hundreds of photographs Weston made now residing in archives and collections with the forty-nine images ultimately selected and arranged by the Club's director, George Macy, I argue that Weston's larger, more complex and diverse version of America more closely resembled Whitman's text than his publisher's limited selection. Moreover, this under-examined body of work promotes a new understanding of Weston's late oeuvre; inspired by cross-country travel, Whitman's poetry, and other artists, Weston tackled new subject matter, experimented with different styles, and synthesized artistic and documentary modes in his photographs. Chapter I introduces the commission, the role of Weston's wife Charis Wilson in the project, the timely choice in 1941 of pairing Whitman and Weston, both of whom challenged boundaries of their respective media, and the outcome of the book's design. Chapter 2 turns to an analysis of the sequence of the first ten images as representative of Macy's caption-driven approach to the book, which generally discouraged the probing of close relationships among images. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the images themselves paired with close readings of select poems in order to establish the parallels in sensibility of the two artists. Chapters 3 through 5 broaden the discussion by including Weston's unpublished images from the 1941 trip. Focusing on Weston's portraits, Chapter 3 discusses Weston's diverse sitters-African and Native Americans and womensometimes selected while researching ethnography. Chapter 4 focuses on landscapesindustrial, urban, desert, and rural-in which he engaged with popular American imagery and created art and documentary images. Chapter 5 analyzes Weston's photographs of plantation ruins and cemeteries in Louisiana, and folk art and customs for which he recorded examples of American ethnography. Through examination of these images, a new picture of Weston emerges as not only a modernist art photographer, but also a photographer with deep interests in American people, landscape, and culture. / 2031-01-01

This thesis discusses the symbolism found in Walt Whitman's second poetic period, as found in the collection Leaves of Grass.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to organize and examine Walt Whitman's poetic representations and discussions of laborers and labor issues in order to argue that form a distinct "poetics" of labor in Leaves of Grass. This poetics of labor reveals that Whitman was attempting to enlarge the audience for American poetry by representing American society at work in poetry. Whitman also used labor as a poetic subject in order to justify the work of the poet in that society. In this sense, Whitman's poetics of labor is comprised of numerous demonstrations of his argument for the labor of poetry because the representation of America at work is contained within the work of the poet. The organization of this thesis rests upon a distinction between the work of the hands and the work of the mind. This distinction resonates in nineteenth century American literature, and it is especially important to debates about the status of the writer in a working democratic society. This question figures prominently in the works of Emerson and Thoreau, and a central issue for both of them is whether or not the writer should participate in the work of the hands. Whitman engages in this debate as well, and argues that the poet can participate in all kinds of work through poetic representation. He participates by representing workers in poetry, and in Whitman's argument the poet then becomes a representative of those workers. A central premise of this thesis is that Whitman's poetry of labor demonstrates an attempt to ensure that America works according to Whitman's interpretation of democracy. This is most apparent in poems where he directly addresses his working audience, and those addresses reveal a specific ideology behind Whitman's poetics of labor. That is, Whitman attempts to level the implicit hierarchical organization of different kinds of work. For instance, in such poems as "Song for Occupations" and "Song of the Broad-Axe," Whitman engages in a conversation with manual laborers in an effort to acknowledge their value and significance to the democratic process. As he celebrates their contribution, he also associates his own work with them, and argues for the · usefulness of such poetry to that process as well. In such poems as "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer'' and "To A Historian," Whitman addresses those who labor with the mind in order to include them in the dialogue, and also to argue that the majority of that work needs to be revised because its claim for authority perpetuates hierarchical distinctions. Whitman offers poetry as a solution, and argues that it is central to democracy because it "completes" all labor by fusing the work of the community with the work of shaping individual identity that comes from reading and writing poetry. This thesis draws upon New Historicist methodologies and approaches to Whitman in order to reconstruct the significance of labor in Whitman's poetics. The poetry which directly addresses laborers and labor issues in Leaves of Grass forms the basis of the argument, but Whitman's relevant prose is considered in detail as well. In particular, Democratic Vistas is examined for its claims that the "work" of poetry is itself incomplete. "Work" is used here to refer both to the aesthetic object and the effort involved in reading it. In other words, Whitman argues that the work of poetry, like the work of democracy, is a continuous, recursive process.

No description available.

The rediscovery of a number of Walt Whitman's early fictions prompts a discussion of where they belong within the larger web of Whitman scholarship. Though we have been aware of the existence of these writings for quite some time, frequently these works return to obscurity soon after being discovered due to the lack of research regarding them. This thesis presents an alternative framework whereby these novels can be integrated into a hypertextual model centered on Leaves of Grass (1855) and Whitman's overall authorial identity. I build on Ed Folsom and Kenneth Price's work creating a hypertext archive incorporating Whitman's works, allowing constraints associated with traditional print form to be overcome. My analysis centers on the recently rediscovered novel The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle (1852) due to its unique publication date. Because we possess so little of Whitman's public writing from the immediate leadup to his first publication of Leaves of Grass, I focus on tracing linguistic and thematic development across the two works. With the help of digital textual analytical tools, I find specific links between the works and argue that Whitman used the novel to experiment with transcendental language and themes that would characterize his later poetic voice. Based on this connection, novels like The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle thrive due to their ability to offer new perspectives on the source text of Leaves of Grass. Within this model, Leaves of Grass also gains new importance due to highlighting the value of the satellite texts like The Life and Adventure of Jack Engle, remedying their previous ambiguous value when isolated. I then discuss how this hypertextual model aids scholars to more easily incorporate Whitman's fiction into future research due to the increased accessibility it provides. Finally, the thesis discusses how this model repositions the role of the archive as more than simply a receptacle of preservation. Instead, it now operates as a source of redefinition by providing artifacts that reimagine period and authorial narratives through this hypertextual model.

No description available.

No description available.