Breaking Bounds Whitman and American Cultural Studies

Breaking Bounds: Whitman and American Cultural Studies reinvigorates the study of Whitman and American culture by presenting essays that demonstrate Whitman's centrality to the widest range of social, political, literary, sexual, and cultural discourses of his time and ours. The volume assembles a distinguished group of cultural critics working in the fields of literature, American studies, Latin American studies, European studies, art history, and gay/lesbian/queer studies. Together they open new vistas in the ways we see Whitman and provide a model for the newest and brightest intellectual efforts associated with cultural studies. Central to the volume is breaking the bounds of decorum that have too long separated Whitman's sexuality from his politics, and his poetry from both. The Whitman that emerges from these collected essays is renewed for a new generation of readers seeking to define the places and the functions of his poetic words in the world. Breaking Bounds points to the interdisciplinary future of American literary and cultural studies and is essential reading for anyone interested in Whitman both inside and outside the academy.