Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Comparative Literature
Advisor
Wayne Koestenbaum
Committee Members
Andre Aciman
David Reynolds
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | Byzantine and Modern Greek | Classical Literature and Philology | Comparative Literature | English Language and Literature | European Languages and Societies | Interactive Arts | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America | Literature in English, North America | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Modern Literature
Keywords
Comparative Literature, Modern Poetry, Eroticism, Identity, Language, Photography
Abstract
This treatise is the first extensive comparative study of Walt Whitman and C. P. Cavafy. Despite the abundant scholarship dealing with the work and life of each, until now no critic has put the two poets together. Whitman’s poetry celebrates birth, youth, the self and the world as seen for the first time, while Cavafy’s diverts from the active present to resurrect a world whose key, in Eliot’s terms, is memory. Yet, I see the two poets conversing in the crossroads of the fin de siècle; the American Whitman and the Greek Cavafy embody the antithesis of hope and dislocation to such a degree that a comparative examination of their poetics reveals two minds, and two narratives, closer than their continents. The textual approach of my subject includes the examination of poetry, prose writings, and autobiographical documentation, as well as biographical testimony. The thematic approach is organized around three key subjects that I see as integral and consistent in the poetics of Whitman and Cavafy: the sea, the city and the body.
Recommended Citation
Skafidas, Michael P., "A Passage from Brooklyn to Ithaca: The Sea, the City and the Body in the Poetics of Walt Whitman and C. P. Cavafy" (2016). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/728
Included in
Byzantine and Modern Greek Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Modern Literature Commons