Revisiting Walt Whitman: On the Occasion of His 200th Birthday

The collection of essays explores the transnational and intermedial (music, visual arts, digital media) legacy of Walt Whitman. It provides examples of his influence as well as suggestive parallels in contemporary poetry and thought. One common concern is the question of Whitman's understanding of democracy and its consequences for poetry and art. Revisiting Whitman has no revisionist agenda. Nor is it nearly celebratory: it also shows tensions and ambivalences in the oeuvre of "The Good Gray Poet."