Breaking Bounds: Whitman and American Cultural Studies [Paperback]

Betsy Erkkila (Editor), Jay Grossman (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 019509350X | ISBN-13: 978-0195093506 | Publication Date: February 15, 1996

Breaking Bounds invigorates the study of Whitman and American culture by presenting essays that demonstrate Whitman's centrality to the widest range of social, political, literary, sexual, and cultural discourses of his time and ours. Bringing together a distinguished group of cultural critics working in the fields of literature, American studies, Latin American studies, European studies, art history, and gay/lesbian/queer studies, the volume persistently opens new vistas in the ways we see Whitman and provides a model for the newest and brightest intellectual efforts associated with "cultural studies." Central to the volume is a set of provocative essays in queer studies that break the bounds of decorum that have too long separated Whitman's sexuality from his politics, and his poetry from both. The Whitman that emerges from these collected essays is renewed for a new generation of literary scholars working to define the places and the functions of his poetic words in the world. Taken as a whole, the volume points to the interdisciplinary future of American literary and cultural studies. Breaking Bounds is essential reading for anyone interested in Whitman both inside and outside the academy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Breaking Bounds: Whitman and American Cultural Studies, one of the most diverse, important, exciting, and responsible collections of critical essays on Whitman ever published, Betsy Erkkila and Jay Grossman have brought together a body of literary and cultural criticism that seeks to undo the academic structures and strictures that erase the vital, conspicuous, "special" relationship between the political and sexual in Whitman's life and work."--Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

"...this is an excellent group of essays, some quite brilliant...it will be of interest to anyone interested in American culture or in Whitman..."Lambda Book Report

"Breaking Bounds is a thought-provoking volume that should inspire Whitman scholars looking for new ways of engaging his work and that should attract new scholars to Whitman studies."--Texas Review

About the Author

Betsy Erkkila is at University of Pennsylvania. Jay Grossman is at Stanford University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019509350X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195093506
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,253,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Gay