The American Revolutionary Spirit

Jefferson’s Ward System and Whitman’s Poetics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.24.2023.24.09

Keywords:

Walt Whitman, Thomas Jefferson, Ward system, American revolutionary spirit, republic, poetics, politics

Abstract

The formation of Whitman’s poetics can be explained from various perspectives: mystical experience, Transcendentalism, politics, sexuality, and so on. Among these factors, the essay aims to study Whitman’s poetics in the context of politics, especially concerning the continuation of the spirit of ’76 — the American Revolutionary spirit. The essay emphasizes the influence of Jefferson on Whitman, particularly Jefferson’s ward system — the link so far overlooked — and argues that it has bearing on Whitman’s poetics. Jefferson sought the continuation of the American experiment of self-government, and, in this context, proposed a ward system — the county subdivision into smaller units. I will demonstrate that Whitman the Journalist showed great interest in Jefferson’s ward system, and that this new link puts Whitman’s poetics in a new light; Whitman’s “interior American republic” is a further subdivision of Jefferson’s “ward republic.” Before Whitman sought to solve the paradox of the individual and mass as well as the states and federal government — as the essay argues — Whitman, like Jefferson, needed to grapple with the paradox of the revolutionary spirit which includes contradictory elements, i.e. the spirit of the new and the concern with stability based on it.

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Author Biography

Kiyotaka Sueyoshi, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

Ph.D., is a graduate of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Szeged, Hungary. He is an Americanist specializing in the 19th century literature and history, with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary textual analysis of American literature. He obtained his Ph.D. in June of 2023 with the dissertation titled Walt Whitman’s Poetic-Political Experiment: Jeffersonian Whitman and Whitman’s Olfactory Tropes.

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Published

2023-11-29

How to Cite

Sueyoshi, K. “The American Revolutionary Spirit: Jefferson’s Ward System and Whitman’s Poetics”. Ad Americam, vol. 24, Nov. 2023, pp. 129-45, doi:10.12797/AdAmericam.24.2023.24.09.

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