ENG 214 - Reading Whitman’s America

1 course unit

This course will study the United States that Walt Whitman knew and interpreted in his writing. First it will focus on the longer poems of Leaves of Grass, framing this work between the two poetic manifestos, “Song of Myself” and “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Then it will move between Whitman’s poetry and other works, visual as well as verbal, that give testimony to the politics and culture of his time. When the Civil War broke out, Whitman worked in the battlefield hospitals as a nurse and produced the volume “Drum Taps” from this experience. We’ll read several poems from this collection to investigate Whitman’s visions of what the war meant and how it would impact the country’s future. The course will show that Whitman’s America wasn’t a single place or culture but a dynamic of people, speech, custom, ideology, and a series of visions the poet had for the future of his ideal democracy. Texts will include the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass and single poems from subsequent editions, including “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” readings in Mason Lowance’s, Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader; David Reynold’s Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography; and Ted Genoways’ Walt Whitman and the Civil War.
Meets departmental Texts/Contexts approach.
Meets general academic requirements L and W and effective Fall 2013 HU and W.