05-29-2010, 08:38 PM
I was bumbling around the internet and came across this article describing a tradition of "homosexual" poetics. I found the articel very interesting. I wonder what other's think. Can you cite any earlier manifestations of "homosexual" poetics or some from other cultures?
http://www.literateur.com/2009/10/identifying-a-homosexual-poetics/
"âWalt Whitmanâ proclaims himself as spokesman, a conduit for the âmany long dumb voicesâ:
Through me forbidden voices, Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veilâd
and I remove the veil,
Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigurâd. (SM:87)
His egocentric poetics aspire to prophetic proportions, and the poet is seen as the receptacle of change. Leaves of Grass is a self-revelatory exploration of the self as both marginal and all-inclusive; by placing the self in a position of continual flux and fluidity, Whitman resists definition: âOf every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religionâ (SM:80); âI am not what you supposed, but far differentâ(C:148), âthe mate and companion of all peopleâ (SM:69), âMaternal as well as paternalâ (SM:79). True to his vision of interrelatedness, Whitman denies singular definition. However, there is an exclusivity in his celebration of adhesive love, and despite all attempts for democratic equality, his utopian ideal solidifies the categories he strives to deny. Whitmanâs universality is challenged by his determination to speak for and to his adhesive comrades, which often reaffirms the patriarchal inequalities of a homosocial order."
http://www.literateur.com/2009/10/identifying-a-homosexual-poetics/
"âWalt Whitmanâ proclaims himself as spokesman, a conduit for the âmany long dumb voicesâ:
Through me forbidden voices, Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veilâd
and I remove the veil,
Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigurâd. (SM:87)
His egocentric poetics aspire to prophetic proportions, and the poet is seen as the receptacle of change. Leaves of Grass is a self-revelatory exploration of the self as both marginal and all-inclusive; by placing the self in a position of continual flux and fluidity, Whitman resists definition: âOf every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religionâ (SM:80); âI am not what you supposed, but far differentâ(C:148), âthe mate and companion of all peopleâ (SM:69), âMaternal as well as paternalâ (SM:79). True to his vision of interrelatedness, Whitman denies singular definition. However, there is an exclusivity in his celebration of adhesive love, and despite all attempts for democratic equality, his utopian ideal solidifies the categories he strives to deny. Whitmanâs universality is challenged by his determination to speak for and to his adhesive comrades, which often reaffirms the patriarchal inequalities of a homosocial order."