In this thesis, I will present evidence from the works of Walt Whitman to suggest he implemented his reading of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno seven years earlier than current scholarship believes and that he used explicitly Dantean words in Leaves of Grass. While American-Literature studies have noted that Whitman read, and greatly admired, Dante, they have, to this point, focused on later editions of Leaves of Grass; specifically, that of 1867 and the Drum-Taps sequence, inspired by the sights and horrors of the American Civil War, which Whitman served in as a nurse. Neglected is Dante’s presence in the earlier, 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, which followed his initial, 1859 reading of the Inferno. Both implicitly and explicitly, Whitman used Dante’s own words to both enrich his poetry and cement his position as the great American bard.
After the "Spring of '59": Dante's Inferno in the 1860 Leaves of Grass
Master's Thesis
Abstract
Attribute Name | Values |
---|---|
Author | Guido Caponigri Guerra |
Contributor | Christian Moevs, Research Director |
Contributor | Laura Walls, Committee Member |
Degree Level | Master's Thesis |
Degree Discipline | Italian Studies (MA-only) |
Degree Discipline | Romance Languages and Literatures |
Degree Name | Master of Arts |
Banner Code |
|
Submission Date | 2019-04-08 |
Subject |
|
Language |
|
Record Visibility | Public |
Content License |
|
Departments and Units | |
Catalog Record |
Files
Thumbnail | File Name | Description | Size | Type | File Access | Actions |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
GuerraGC042019T.pdf | 376 KB | application/pdf | Public |
1 entry found