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Whitman and the Romance of Medicine
Hardcover
Literary CriticismPoetry Criticism
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ISBN10: 0520207602
ISBN13: 9780520207608
Publisher: Univ Of California Pr
Published: Aug 28 1997
Pages: 205
Weight: 1.11
Height: 0.89 Width: 6.35 Depth: 9.31
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780520207608
Publisher: Univ Of California Pr
Published: Aug 28 1997
Pages: 205
Weight: 1.11
Height: 0.89 Width: 6.35 Depth: 9.31
Language: English
In this compelling, accessible examination of one of America's greatest cultural and literary figures, Robert Leigh Davis details the literary and social significance of Walt Whitman's career as a nurse during the American Civil War. Davis shows how the concept of convalescence in nineteenth-century medicine and philosophy--along with Whitman's personal war experiences--provide a crucial point of convergence for Whitman's work as a gay and democratic writer.
In his analysis of Whitman's writings during this period--Drum-Taps, Democratic Vistas, Memoranda During the War, along with journalistic works and correspondence--Davis argues against the standard interpretation that Whitman's earliest work was his best. He finds instead that Whitman's hospital writings are his most persuasive account of the democratic experience. Deeply moved by the courage and dignity of common soldiers, Whitman came to identify the Civil War hospitals with the very essence of American democratic life, and his writing during this period includes some of his most urgent reflections on suffering, sympathy, violence, and love. Davis concludes this study with an essay on the contemporary medical writer Richard Selzer, who develops the implications of Whitman's ideas into a new theory of medical narrative.
In his analysis of Whitman's writings during this period--Drum-Taps, Democratic Vistas, Memoranda During the War, along with journalistic works and correspondence--Davis argues against the standard interpretation that Whitman's earliest work was his best. He finds instead that Whitman's hospital writings are his most persuasive account of the democratic experience. Deeply moved by the courage and dignity of common soldiers, Whitman came to identify the Civil War hospitals with the very essence of American democratic life, and his writing during this period includes some of his most urgent reflections on suffering, sympathy, violence, and love. Davis concludes this study with an essay on the contemporary medical writer Richard Selzer, who develops the implications of Whitman's ideas into a new theory of medical narrative.
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