Journal 37 - RXN to Whitman's Language of the Self

Upon reading Mark Bauerlein's "Whitman's Language of the Self, I thought of many questions in my mind. Like What the heck is up with the rhetoric language of the Self; "If Whitman requires figurative language in order to speak or to write the self, even when aiming explicitly to unveil the self and not to clothe it in tropes, one wonders whether sheer self-expression of the kind Whitman prefigures is possible. If figurative language is the seminal ingredient of poetry, can Whitman compose a poem matching his self? Could he discover a pure language of the self, a language which, though thetorical, would have a new rhetoric based on the directions and idiosyncrasies of Whitman's desires, Whitman would create a poem unparalleled in its evocation of self" (Bauerlein). Yes, I do know this language does not really exist but it still confuses me quite a bit thinking about a language that can describe the type of person you are. It is just above my level of thinking. It is also a Sunday so my level of thinking is way down because I do not want to be doing any homework. I also already have a bad case of senior-itis. So that disease is not helping my motivation to think at the moment. Another thing in the essay that stood out to me was when Bauerlein talks of how Whitman was expansive and egotistical. Yes, at first glance, it would appear Whitman is very egotistical, but he really is not that bad. He is just a confident person and he shows this within his writings. I think that is is cool that Bauerlein almost goes into a psychological dissection of Whitman;'s brain. He talks of how things in his childhood may have given him this confidence. It is really quite amazing to think that there are stages in people's lives when they are children that give them confidence. He says that this "mirror stage" is when the self of people begin to form. So you are you before you think you are you.




Bauerlein, Mark. "Whitman's Language of the Self." American Imago 44, no. 2 (Summer 1987). Quoted as "Whitman's Language of the Self" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Song of Myself, Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. . Web. Feb 26, 2011.