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‘Have the elder races halted?’: British socialist readings of ‘Pioneers! O Pioneers’
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Harris, Kirsten (2009) ‘Have the elder races halted?’: British socialist readings of ‘Pioneers! O Pioneers’. 19: interdisciplinary studies in the long nineteenth century (9). doi:10.16995/ntn.521
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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.521
Abstract
This short essay analyses British socialist readings of Walt Whitman’s ‘Pioneers! O Pioneers!’ and explores some of the ways in which the poem was appropriated for the socialist movement. Despite its overt American nationalism, ‘Pioneers’ was one of the key Whitman poems for British socialists: extracts were frequently reprinted in socialist newspapers and periodicals, it was referred to in articles and obituaries, and it was invoked in speeches. It was assimilated into a familiar fin de siècle socialist spiritual discourse and used directly as political propaganda. This paper discusses the means by which the ‘Americanness’ of ‘Pioneers’ was either overlooked or actively edited out and its militaristic components were emphasised. By focusing on the martial imagery and rhetoric of ‘Pioneers’, nineteenth-century British socialists were able to translate Whitman’s call to America into a rallying cry for the extension of a global socialist democracy.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History H Social Sciences > HX Socialism. Communism. Anarchism P Language and Literature > PS American literature |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School for Cross-faculty Studies Faculty of Arts > School for Cross-faculty Studies > Liberal Arts |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Political and social views, Socialism -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | 19: interdisciplinary studies in the long nineteenth century | ||||||
| Publisher: | University of London, Birkbeck College, Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1755-1560 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 9 November 2009 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Number: | 9 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.16995/ntn.521 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | Kirsten Harris | ||||||
| Open Access Version: |
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