Essays
Author: Steven A Wartofsky
Explores the question of "who is Whitman's biographical mother" by examining the poetry (especially "Song of Myself" and "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life") in the context of theoretical statements by Lacan, Kristeva, Roustang, and Jacqueline Rose; argues that Whitman's "mother-voice" is presented in the form of the "primitive semiotic" and that "she is the Self who by her own revelations legitimates Whitman's homosexual identity."
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How to Cite: Wartofsky, S. A. (1992) “Whitman's Impossible Mother”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 9(4). doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1337