Walt Whitman and British Socialism ‘The Love of Comrades’ Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature Series
Auteur : Harris Kirsten
This is the first sustained examination of Walt Whitman?s influence on British socialism. Harris combines a contextual historical study of Whitman?s reception with focused close readings of a variety of poems, books, articles, letters and speeches. She calls attention to Whitman?s own demand for the reader to ?himself or herself construct indeed the poem, argument, history, metaphysical essay?, linking Whitman?s general comments about active reading to specific cases of his fin de siècle British socialist readership. These include the editorial aims behind the Whitman selections published by William Michael Rossetti, Ernest Rhys, and W. T. Stead and the ways that Whitman was interpreted and appropriated in a wide range of grassroots texts produced by individuals or groups who responded to Whitman and his poetry publicly in socialist circles.
Harris makes full use of material from the C. F. Sixsmith and J. W. Wallace and the Bolton Whitman Fellowship collections at John Rylands, the Edward Carpenter collection in the Sheffield Archives, and the Archives of Swan Sonnenschein & Co. at the University of Reading. Much of this archive material ? little of which is currently available in digital form ? is discussed here in full for the first time. Accordingly, this study will appeal to those with interest in the archival history of nineteenth-century literary culture, as well as the connections to be made between literary and political culture of this era more generally.
Introduction 1. Towards an Evolutionary Aesthetic: Edward Carpenter’s Democracy 2. Permeating Socialism: James William Wallace and the Bolton Whitmanites 3. Whitman at Work in the Socialist Press 4. William Clarke’s Walt Whitman: A Socialist Exposition 5. "Have the Elder Races Halted?": Uses of Whitman’s "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" Coda
Kristen Harris is currently Senior Tutor in the School of Modern Languages at Bristol and has previously lectured in English Literature at the University of Nottingham and taught at the University of Sheffield.
Date de parution : 12-2019
15.2x22.9 cm
Date de parution : 02-2016
15.2x22.9 cm
Thèmes de Walt Whitman and British Socialism :
Mots-clés :
fin de siècle; reader reception; William Michael Rossetti; Ernest Rhys; W; T; Stead; Leaves of Grass; Eagle Street College; nineteenth-century journalism; William Clarke; democratic poetics; Edward Carpenter; Literature; Research; Young Man; Walt Whitman; Labour Leader; Labour Prophet; Labour Church; Democratic Vistas; Whitman’s Death; Whitman’s Poetry; Alfred Orage; Personal Development; Open Road; Pioneer Motif; Whitman’s Representations; Whitman’s Views; Whitman’s Work; Whitman’s Poem; Whitman’s Words; Rainbow Circle; Carpenter's Theory; Elder Races; Blue Ontario’s Shore; Socialist League; Brave Pioneers; Labour Representation Committee