Whitman's Ecstatic Union : Conversion And Ideology In Leaves Of Grass

Sowder, Michael

ISBN 10: 0415972159 / ISBN 13: 9780415972154

Published by Routledge, 2005

About this Item

Unread book in perfect condition.

Seller Inventory # 3193928

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Whitman's Ecstatic Union : Conversion And Ideology In Leaves Of Grass
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415972159
• ISBN 13: 9780415972154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

First Published in 2005. Whitman's Ecstatic Union rereads the first three editions of Leaves of Grass within the context of a nineteenth-century antebellum evangelical culture of conversion. Though Whitman intended to write a new American Bible and inaugurate a religion, contemporary scholarship has often ignored the religious element in his poetry. But just as evangelists sought the redemption of America through the reconstruction of individual subjects in conversion, Leaves of Grass sought to redeem the nation by inducing ecstatic, regenerating experiences in its readers. Whitman's Ecstatic Union explores the ecstasy of conversion as a liminal moment outside of language and culture, and-employing Althusser's model of ideological interpellation and anthropological models of religious ritual-shows how evangelicalism remade subjects by inducing ecstasy and instilling new narratives of identity. The book analyzes Whitman's historical relationship to preaching and conversion and reads the 1855 Song of Myself as a conversion narrative. A focus on the 1856 edition and the poem To You explores the sacred seductions at the heart of Whitman's poetry. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry and Whitman's vision of a world of perfect miracles are then connected to a conception of universal affection, uncannily paralleling Jonathan Edward's ideal of love to being in general. A conclusion looks toward the transformations of Whitman's vision in the 1860 edition.

About the Author

Michael Sowder