The Queer Dialectic of Whitman’s Nation: "Let" in “Respondez”

Authors

Václav Paris, CUNY City CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2013

Abstract

This article considers Whitman's "Respondez" - perhaps his strangest poem. It seeks to explicate the poem by looking at his shifting use of the word "let." The article draws on studies of queer theory, nationalism, modernism, to reveal an unfamiliar and far more radical Whitman than we are familiar with.

Comments

This work was originally published in Arizona Quarterly.