Aalborg Universitet Walt Whitman's Therapeutic Vistas on the Poet's

Aalborg Universitet Walt Whitman’s Therapeutic Vistas on the poet's discovery of literature's redemptive and self-renovating potential Guldberg, Kasper Rueskov DOI (link to publication from Publisher): 10.5278/vbn.phd.hum.00095 Publication date: 2018 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Guldberg, K. R. (2018). Walt Whitman’s Therapeutic Vistas: on the poet's discovery of literature's redemptive and self-renovating potential. Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Aalborg Universitet. Det Humanistiske Fakultet. Ph.D.- Serien https://doi.org/10.5278/vbn.phd.hum.00095 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? 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Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: September 26, 2021 OF LITERATURE’S REDEMPTIVE AND SELFRENOVATING POTENTIAL AND SELFRENOVATING REDEMPTIVE OF LITERATURE’S ON THE POET’S DISCOVERY WHITMAN’S THERAPEUTIC VISTAS: WALT WALT WHITMAN’S THERAPEUTIC VISTAS: ON THE POET’S DISCOVERY OF LITERATURE’S REDEMPTIVE AND SELFRENOVATING POTENTIAL BY KASPER RUESKOV GULDBERG DISSERTATION SUBMITTED 2018 KASPER RUESKOV GULDBERG WALT WHITMAN’S THERAPEUTIC VISTAS: ON THE POET’S DISCOVERY OF LITERATURE’S REDEMPTIVE AND SELF- RENOVATING POTENTIAL by Kasper Rueskov Guldberg Dissertation submitted March 23, 2018 1 Dissertation submitted: 23 March 2018 PhD supervisor: Associate Prof. Bent Sørensen Aalborg University Assistant PhD supervisor: Associate Prof. Robert Rix formerly of Aalborg University, currently Copenhagen University PhD committee: Associate Professor Mia Rendix (chair) Aalborg University, Denmark Professor Charles Lock University of Copenhagen, Denmark Professor Jeffrey Berman University at Albany State University of New York PhD Series: Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University ISSN (online): 2246-123X ISBN (online): 978-87-7210-065-4 Published by: Aalborg University Press Langagervej 2 DK – 9220 Aalborg Ø Phone: +45 99407140 [email protected] forlag.aau.dk © Copyright: Kasper Rueskov Guldberg Printed in Denmark by Rosendahls, 2018 Biography Kasper Rueskov Guldberg, born 1984, is a Danish Whitman scholar interested in the psychological significance and potentials of aesthetic activity, particularly reading and writing. He did his undergraduate work in English Literature at Copenhagen University between 2006 and 2011. Kasper has taught at Roskilde University and Aalborg University and currently serves as editorial secretary for Nordic Association for Romantic Studies (NARS). With NARS and his assistant PhD supervisor Robert Rix, he has co-organized the conferences Disseminating Romanticism in 2014 (at Aalborg University) and Rethinking Cultural Memory 1700–1850 in 2015 (at Copenhagen University). Kasper’s scholarly orientation owes much to the feedback he has received for talks given at three PsyArt conferences (in 2013, 2014 and 2015). 3 ENGLISH SUMMARY This dissertation considers the life and works of Walt Whitman within the context of literature as therapy. It offers several new ways of evaluating the therapeutic, autobiographical and self- transcending aspects of Whitman’s poetry while seeking to clarify both (1) Whitman’s personal experiences as a beleaguered self reacting to life’s challenges through his poetry and (2) the general potentials of the written word for everybody who puts pen to paper. Poems and to a lesser degree other writings from across Whitman’s career are considered in the light of different theoretical contexts. These include existentialism, phenomenology, Franklean logotherapy and psychoanalysis (including trauma theory, analytical psychology, as well as insights from Freud, Kohut and Lacan). References are also made to the philosophy of religion. Motivated to uncover fresh psychological insights about aesthetics and creativity while also presenting new arguments about Whitman, the dissertation rests on the foundational premise that text, self and world often mutually affect each other in ways that are best addressed from a psychological theoretical framework. Carefully considering and learning from each of the theoretical and practical realms of knowledge, as well as from a wide range of poets, authors, essayists, literary scholars and biographers whose insights and life orientations complement Whitman’s, the dissertation achieves to extract ideas of practical value from Whitman’s experience which shed light on the fundamental problems of the human condition. That achievement is to some degree inevitable given the theoretical underpinnings, but it is also intentional insofar as it is my opinion that the majority of Whitman critics – excellent Whitman readers though they are – nevertheless fail to make their writing about Whitman begin where their reading of him stopped. In other words, it is my opinion that scholarly arguments, in order to not misrepresent Whitman’s works, need to reflect and take seriously the fact that they were read by and had an effect on a human being who necessarily has things in common with the poet. These commonalities, which I consider archetypal (as they are timeless and transcend nationality, race, gender, historical environment etc.) include the precarious predicament of being a vulnerable and mortal self in a world inherently (though not incessantly) indifferent or hostile to the safety and well-being of human beings. More specifically, the commonalities also include the fact that we all inhabit biological, social and psychological realms which continuously delight and afflict us as we cycle through epochs of youth, aging, 4 companionship, loneliness, robustness, frailty, sexuality, disease, triumph, shame, courage, fear, wonder and death – to name but a few archetypal experiences. The dissertation goes some way towards redressing the identified dearth in the indicated kind of scholarly approach. It is a classic psychoanalytic insight that we may not consciously know or feel precisely “where we are” in the aforementioned biological, social and psychological realms at any one moment, but that our journey nevertheless affects us unconsciously (hence the psychoanalytic practices of dream analysis and automatic association, for instance). I explain how Whitman’s poetry – and literature in general – can aid readers psychologically and sensitize them towards a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the truth of their existence. And I present the general argument that aesthetic engagement may ground us existentially and lead us to realise the therapeutic and redemptive rewards of aesthetic and literary engagement. I also delineate how – with reference not exclusively to Whitman but to any individual who utters a sincere thought reflecting their present mental and existential situation – how our experience of the exterior world is not a constant to which we must submit but is dependent on our thoughts and feelings about our situation and about ourselves. From an investigation and explanation of this psychological dynamic I turn to Whitman and explain that his Leaves of Grass can be thought of as the ongoing inauguration of carefully crafted symbolic selves uniquely possessing the wisdom, personal resources, courage or perspective on which actual survival in the world seems to be predicated. It is arguable that Whitman experimented with and managed to transform his actual character – and thus his life – by creating poetic instantiations of character (symbolic selves) and having them pervade and inhabit Leaves of Grass. Although Whitman’s letters reveal that he was too complex a man to exclusively be the majestic “father-healer” he liked to see himself as – offering “prescription[s] of health and Eros” and “antidote[s] to disease and Thanatos”, as David Aberbach writes – he does appear to have managed, amid quite unpalatable circumstances, to nourish, construct, repair and raise his self to such degrees of existential serenity, confidence and courage that he felt not only “self-balanced”, as he put it, for virtually any contingency but was also occasionally seen as a religious leader of men. Because I consider it unwise idolatry to explain this wonderful gradual transformation by insisting that the historical Whitman was in some mysterious, unknowable way categorically different from almost all other people, I necessarily come to the conclusion that we ought to reflect deeply on the implications of his example for all of us. And I suggest that we should not be too quick to assume that we necessarily perceive the upper limits and capabilities of the human psyche. 5 The road to serenity for Whitman was, despite his genius, long and troubled. His many worldly trials, including the countless tragedies he witnessed during the Civil War and his never fulfilled romantic life, would lend poignancy and interest to the story of his life

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