Essays

A Tribe Called Text: Whitman and Representing the American Indian Body

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Abstract

Examines "the language with which Whitman represents the American Indian body" and argues that "the image of the Indian" marks Whitman's failure to "project actual physical presence in a literary text" because he "textualizes and . . . obscures the Indian body, aligning the indigenous American with the trope of writing and the composition of the text itself"; focuses on "Song of Myself," "Starting from Paumanok," "The Sleepers," and Whitman's story "The Half-Breed."

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How to Cite: Soodik, N. (2004) “A Tribe Called Text: Whitman and Representing the American Indian Body”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 22(2/3). doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1756