| dc.description.abstract | We commence our examination of the kaleidoscopic range
of connections between Whitman and the daguerreotype with a
simple, unpretentious news column by Whitman entitled "Visit
to Plumbe’s Gallery". This leads to speculations of how Whitman
could not have missed or ignored the profound infusion of the
daguerreotype upon nineteenth century American society.
In the next chapter we witness Whitman's facination with his
own photographic portraits. We also see the revolutionary stagecraft
that was employed in his portraits, and how there seems to
be a chronological record of transitions from a Brooklyn journalist,
to a proletariat "rough", and then to an enlightened sage.
The two chapters that come next examines how Whitman's emphasis
on sight and seeing in Leaves of Grass corresponds with key elements
in photography, and how the monistic philosophy of Whitman as it
relates to the body and the soul is analogous to the direct positive
process of early daguerreotypes.
Next we are reminded of Whitman's enthusiasm for scientific
advancements, and how the advent of photography seemed to fit the grid of the poet's mind perfectly. In addition we discern
a kinship between Whitman's democratic leaning and the popularity
of photography - how both Leaves of Grass and the art of the
daguerreotype were "of the people, by the people, for the people".
The final chapter culminates with an examination of the ways
in which Whitman’s prosodical achievements resemble the techniques
in photography. His poetic practice of piling line upon line in
catalogue stacks bears an uncanny likeness to individual snapshots.
Thus this thesis aims to observe Leaves of Grass from a new
angle and through a new lens. Hopefully we can gain a little
understanding of the genesis of the dozen poems that comprised
the thin quarto of 1855. | |
