After studying Walt Whitman for the semester, we noticed some themes in his writing that translated into modern times. We also noticed that some of these common themes are less accepted than others. Thus, we wanted to put Whitman’s poetry in conversation with three women from the modern times: Ivy, Elie and myself. We did so using a modern form of a podcast to embodied Whitman’s idea of “taking me with you.” In doing so, we were able to see how Whitman would fit in today based on what he wrote about, how he wrote about it, and how it was received in his time and still today. We found places where he fit in seamlessly today, while also finding places where he struggled a bit. But, overall, we found him to be more timeless than not.
We used many online articles and scholarly articles to back up our conversations. We also dressed every episode with his own poetry so listeners are able to hear his own wording as a baseline for our conversations. In Episode One, we discuss Whitman and the idea of fame. We use the poems “I Sit and Look Out” and “Among the Multitudes” alongside David Halen Blake’s “Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity.” Our main talking points in this episode are social media, Whitman and how he thought about celebrity and fame, and the Digital Revolution that we are in now versus the Industrial Revolution that Whitman was experiencing in his lifetime. We use online articles as well that can all be found in our “Further Reading” notes.
In Episode Two, we focus on Whitman and women, gender and sexuality. In regards to his poetry, we utilize “A Woman Waits for Me” and “I Sing the Body Electric,” noticing how different the two are in their description of women. We also talk a bit about John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in an attempt to understand the overarching view of women from a biblical, literary, historical sense. We also discuss an article titled, “Women as a theme in Whitman’s Writing” by Sherry Ceniza. We transition into Whitman’s “Calamus” poems, offering our feelings towards him during this season of writing. We note that we absolutely love him when he writes like he does in “Calamus.” He is open, honest, and completely relatable to us.
Finally, in Episode Three, we discuss Whitman and the Civil War and how his idea of violence would be used today. We discuss how our world is corrupt with violence every single day. We also talk about “Nurse Whitman” and how Whitman did more than just write about the war – he offered himself. We talk about how Whitman viewed American culture as not the product of just Americans, but a mix of cultures. We use this to discuss what we think Whitman would think of our policies on Immigration and Border Security. We use Whitman’s “The Spanish Element in our Nationality” and “Over the Carnage rose prophetic a voice” as our baseline for this episode. As always, we call upon many online sources and articles that can all be found in our “Further Reading” notes underneath our podcast episodes.
The purpose of our podcast is to put Whitman into conversation with modern times. We recognize that much of his work is timeless and still more than useful today. We found that we are passionate about these topics and feel like Whitman would be passionate about them as well. I think the ability we were all able to feed off of each other and have stimulating conversation while making the podcast is our best highlight. We think that Whitman would love the idea of someone making a podcast about him just to talk about his writing and its relevance. We honestly had fun doing this! Some of the struggles were meeting so often. I think when it’s all totaled up, we met around six times, all of them lasting multiple hours. But that was also a highlight as we formed a new friendship with each other and dove even deeper in the world of Walt Whitman. Each of us also had our own specific roles. For instance, Ivy did all of the editing for our podcast, Elie took care of the initial blog post and part of the outlines, and I tackled the rest of the outlines and this post. We all contributed equally during the actual podcasting. Overall, this project has taught us a lot about the power of writing. It has the ability to transcend borders and time frames, and the power to touch the hearts of everyone who reads it. Whitman recognized this, and we recognized this in him.
Further Reading:
Episode One:
- https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-social-media-overload-20150412-story.html
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npt0h (Scholarly Article)
Episode Two:
- https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_747.html
- https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/was-walt-whitman-gay-new-textbook-rules-spark-lgbtq-history-n821636
- https://www-jstor-org.nuncio.cofc.edu/stable/2933958?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=whitman&searchText=gay&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwhitman%2Bgay%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dtest&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4802%2Fcontrol&refreqid=search%3A48be03230842ee1d444628cd61f2d629&seq=7#metadata_info_tab_contents (Scholarly Article)
Episode Three:
- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/walt-whitman-and-civil-war/
- https://www-jstor-org.nuncio.cofc.edu/stable/365238?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=whitman&searchText=hospital&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwhitman%2Bhospital%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dtest&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4802%2Ftest2&refreqid=search%3Afc6196b91d877bc7bbc108d912422205&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (Scholarly article)
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/walt-whitman-and-the-immi_b_606208
- https://www.readpoetry.com/verses-against-violence-4-powerful-anti-gun-poems/
https://www.readpoetry.com/verses-against-violence-4-powerful-anti-gun-poems/ (Modern Poetry)
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