Whitman the Political Poet by Betsy Erkkila
A study of Walt Whitman's work within the socio-political context of his times, combining a formalist and an historic approach. The author's aim is to repair the split between the private and the public that has governed the analysis of Whitman's work in the past.
"Simply one of the best books ever written on WhitmanVirtually every page of it is persuasive and much is entirely original.... Without question, it will be one of the books on Whitman that every reader should own."--Eric Sundquist, University of California, Berkeley
"Erkkila presents an extraordinary account of how Whitman's political purposes informed the most fundamental choices of his life and career, and in so doing she has written what is surely one of the two or three most valuable one-volume studies of Whitman ever produced."--South Atlantic Review
"A welcome attempt to show Whitman as writer and man living in and reacting to the political environment of his age....Her book is thorough and convincingly argued, and makes an important contribution to the study of American literature and culture."--Choice
"She always has something to say about the larger inferences of his work, about the assumptions behind it and the contradictions often hidden in those assumptions, and about the uneasy relation between Whitman's thought and the thought of his time....Will help most readers better to grasp the detail within the whole arc of Whitman's ideas."--Times Literary Supplement
"No other work has dealt so well and so fully with Whitman's political ideology or made so fine a connection between Whitman's sense of his artistic mission and his political-ideological orientation....Lucid, comprehensive, and well-reasoned, Professor Erkkila's book fills a serious need in Whitman studies both as a source book and as a orrective to other interpretations."--Journal of English & Germanic Philology
"Erkkila has written what will surely be both a major resource for Whitman scholars and an important contribution to the growing body of recent work investigating the relations between literary and political culture in nineteenth-century America....Extraordinary in its scope....A major achievement. It will permanently alter our sense of its subject and should remain one of the indispensable books on Whitman for many years to come."--Modern Philology
"A useful book for both the specialist and the student. It succeeds more fully than previous studies in placing the Whitman canon in a socio-political frame."--Lawrence Buell, Oberlin College
"Erkkila presents an extraordinary account of how Whitman's political purposes informed the most fundamental choices of his life and career, and in so doing she has written what is surely one of the two or three most valuable one-volume studies of Whitman ever produced."--South Atlantic Review
"A welcome attempt to show Whitman as writer and man living in and reacting to the political environment of his age....Her book is thorough and convincingly argued, and makes an important contribution to the study of American literature and culture."--Choice
"She always has something to say about the larger inferences of his work, about the assumptions behind it and the contradictions often hidden in those assumptions, and about the uneasy relation between Whitman's thought and the thought of his time....Will help most readers better to grasp the detail within the whole arc of Whitman's ideas."--Times Literary Supplement
"No other work has dealt so well and so fully with Whitman's political ideology or made so fine a connection between Whitman's sense of his artistic mission and his political-ideological orientation....Lucid, comprehensive, and well-reasoned, Professor Erkkila's book fills a serious need in Whitman studies both as a source book and as a orrective to other interpretations."--Journal of English & Germanic Philology
"Erkkila has written what will surely be both a major resource for Whitman scholars and an important contribution to the growing body of recent work investigating the relations between literary and political culture in nineteenth-century America....Extraordinary in its scope....A major achievement. It will permanently alter our sense of its subject and should remain one of the indispensable books on Whitman for many years to come."--Modern Philology
"A useful book for both the specialist and the student. It succeeds more fully than previous studies in placing the Whitman canon in a socio-political frame."--Lawrence Buell, Oberlin College
Betsy Erkkila is Henry Sanborn Noyes Professor of Literature at Northwestern University and the author of Walt Whitman Among the French, Whitman the Political Poet, and The Wicked Sisters: Women Poets, Literary History, and Discord.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780195113808 |
| ISBN 10 | 0195113802 |
| Title | Whitman the Political Poet |
| Author | Betsy Erkkila |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Inc |
| Year published | 1997-07-03 |
| Number of pages | 364 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |