Whitman+Big+Questions

Some big questions that drive our use of the Whitman Archive. List yours here.

Denise, Stephanie and Joseph's Big Question: What is the relationship between the and I and the You?

Alden and Al's Qs: Does Whitman negotiate the individual's space/place/role in the collective? How? Why?

Dustin and Viola's BIG QUESTION(S)!? How does the poem complicate the notion of binary oppositions? How does it both assert and deconstruct these oppositions, or the possibility of oppositions? Song of Myself begins with the word "I" and ends with "you." How does the poem define the individual "I" in relation to the collective? And does it reconcile, or attempt to reconcile, the seeming contradiction inherent in diametrically opposed images of the self?

Ilse, Ryan, Christine: What is the relationship between the soul and the body? Of what is the narrator trying to convince the reader?

Ned, Caroline, Angela: What makes the poem American? How does Whitman's use of the senses construct the poem? How does Whitman represent/preserve the individual in the context of recognizing the community?