外国文学欣赏_whitman.ppt

Walt Whitman (1819-92) Birth and Early Career Born 31 May 1819 in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island, to parents with interests in Quaker thought, Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. The second of nine children. Works as printer’s apprentice (to 1835) and as a school teacher. The Journalist, 1844 Worked for several different newspapers Wrote short fiction from 1841-1848 Themes and techniques borrowed from Poe and Hawthorne The Brooklyn Eagle 1846-1848. Becomes chief editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, a post he holds from March 5, 1846 to January 18, 1848. In May 1848, Whitman is fired because his politics conflict with those of the publisher. Whitman opposes the expansion of slavery into new territories. “Pulp Fiction” Franklin Evans, 1842 Temperance novel Sold 20,000 copies, more than any other work Whitman published in his lifetime New Orleans Lives in New Orleans for 4 months as editor of the Daily Crescent. Sees slavery and slave-markets at first hand Experiences with nature (“live oaks, with moss”) and with French language later appear in his poetry. Influences: Literature and Music Italian opera: “Were it not for the opera, I could never have written Leaves of Grass.” Shakespeare, especially Richard III. Whitman saw Junius Brutus Booth (father of John Wilkes Booth) perform. The Holy Bible Emerson Emerson helped Whitman to “find himself”: “I was simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.” Literary Acquaintances Edgar Allan Poe William Cullen Bryant Amos Bronson Alcott Henry David Thoreau Whitman’s Themes Transcendent power of love, brotherhood, and comradeship Imaginative projection into others’ lives Optimistic faith in democracy and equality Belief in regenerative and illustrative powers of nature and its value as a teacher Equivalence of body and soul and the unabashed exaltation of the body and sexuality Whitman’s Poetic Techniques Free verse: lack of metrical regularity and conventional rhyme Use of repeated images, symbols, phrases, a