Tedious Walt: A New Whitman for Religious Studies
Whitman’s early readers emphasized the centrality of religion in his poetry, and subsequent academic reception often retains this opinion, highlighting the prevalence of religion in Whitman’s poetry and prose. However, despite the frequent treatment of religion in Whitman scholarship, religion is of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2019]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 87, Issue: 2, Pages: 434-459 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Whitman, Walt 1819-1892
/ Religion
/ Ethics
/ Science of Religion
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| RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion CD Christianity and Culture KBQ North America |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Whitman’s early readers emphasized the centrality of religion in his poetry, and subsequent academic reception often retains this opinion, highlighting the prevalence of religion in Whitman’s poetry and prose. However, despite the frequent treatment of religion in Whitman scholarship, religion is often read as loosely analogous to “belief” or “experience.” In this article, I first critique the narrow theorization of religion in Whitman scholarship, arguing that many scholars fail to acknowledge their historical or situational inheritance (i.e., a theory of religion that is rooted in Western and Christian concepts and biases, broadly). Following this argument that contemporary Whitman scholarship often retains a noncritical account of religion, I advocate for a more capacious, affective reading of religion in Whitman’s work that allows for not only an account of beliefs and experiences, but also social norms, practices, habits, and ethical dispositions. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfz005 |