Visionary, prophet, tyrant, racist, bigot. It is perhaps sufficient in saying that no other poet can hold as many of those modifiers as Walt Whitman. From scholars and poets ranging in ethnic background and sexual orientation, the response to Whitman has been incredibly varied. Many see his work as a stepping stone for future generations, in spite of race or sexual orientation, while others deem his work to be grotesque and too racially charged to properly serve as an inspiration for the future generations. However, there has been one facet of Whitman’s afterlives that tend to lionize him beyond the way some scholars and poets may do so and that is popular culture. When it comes to popular culture, there seems to be less dispute over Whitman’s controversial work and his inspiring nature than in literary culture. Whether it be film, music, or television, popular culture seems to lionize Whitman’s sage-like character while literary culture seems to partake in a more critical analysis over Whitman. But, which side is right? Should society lionize Whitman and put him on an undisputed pedestal of merit and inspiration or should Whitman be demonized for his insensitive work?
For this project, I chose to view the way the various facets of popular culture such as film, television, and music all portray Whitman’s work and character in a lionized fashion and how some literary critics view Whitman’s work as being racist toward minorities. The intent of this project is to examine Whitman’s portrayal in both popular and literary culture in order to see how Whitman should be viewed in our society today. I believe by viewing this dichotomy between popular and literary culture with Whitman’s character and work, we can begin to examine other literary figures such as Whitman and contextualize them better in contemporary society and determine if these figures, like Whitman, should be included in popular/literary canon in general.
I decided engage in the genre of video essay in order to provide a more digestible engagement with the primary sources (i.e. film and television clips). For the most part, the secondary sources that I used discussed racial literary criticism towards Whitman or provided insight into how we should view Whitman in contemporary society, while only three of my secondary sources provided insight into Whitman’s foray into popular culture especially in regards to his portrayal in film and television.
All of the struggles and challenges I faced while creating this video essay were purely technological or my difficulty to read off of my script properly while doing the voiceover. The biggest difficulty was compiling all of the clips as a few of them were unable to be downloaded off of YouTube or other streaming sites. In spite of these challenges, I quite enjoyed the experience of making a video essay for my final project. This was the first time in my academic career that I was able to lend my own knowledge and passion for filmmaking/editing into a project in a creative and fun way.
Now, I give you…
WHITMAN: POPULAR VS THE LITERARY:
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