My project took an approach I had never taken before on the portrayal of female’s as empowered by Whitman’s maternal prototype. I really enjoyed investigating the issue from a kind of perspective I have formally argued against and was pleasantly surprised at a lot of the incite I was able to extract. I used Milk and Filth by Carmen Giménez Smith as a primary source to bolster my argument regarding the kind of voice Whitman sought to promote for women. To begin with, I discuss ways in which the language Whitman uses to define his females provides opportunity and agency and promotes the same kind of progressive initiatives his work inspired and sought out to achieve. My analysis is then supported, challenged, and guided by Carmen Giménez Smith’s book Milk and Filth, which features a modern female writer’s approach to issues of the past, present, and future regarding feminism and womanhood in general. Some of the critics I cite are in favor of the empowering qualities of Whitman’s women, while others argue sternly against such positivity. However, my research and analysis proves that Whitman’s goal was not to appeal to, or challenge, any specific social issue, but rather to promote a general regard for human progression that relied heavily upon the mother and father, equally. One of the most productive moments in my argument features some of Whitman’s post civil war sentiments that offer a “feminization” of the suffering felt by America following the war. His focus on the women shouldering the brunt of the pain and grief and having to make the best of the fractured society in which they found themselves is truly powerful and fits nicely into my argument. Finally, I conclude with some gender based poetry of my own, that features the mother trope along with other feminine and masculine prototypes and the way in which they interact in love and loss.
Here is a link to an interesting interview I used to extract some information about Giménez’s take on her book and her own feminism:
http://bostonreview.net/poetry/npm14-lynn-melnick-interview-carmen-gimenez-smith
And here is a sampling of my own gender based poetry:
Mother’s Raven Hair
My mother is everywhere.
Braiding my black hair, weaving herself into moves I make
towards the warm doorway, the frame that beckons me, away from
the rest. If she sits it is only to observe
the things she created–my sister and I or the Christmas Eve mantle.
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