Literary Modernism and the Initial Reception of Whitman

Whitman was undeniably a force in the development of modernist poetry in different national contexts. His role in the modernist Chinese literature and in Brazilian literary modernism was investigated. One can trace a relationship between the desire to break with traditional norms of literature and attention to the father of American free verse in various countries.

Internationally, the 1920s were significant in the history of modernist literature. British-American writer, T.S. Eliot, published The Waste Land, a central text in modernist poetry and Irish writer, James Joyce, published Ulysses, one of the most important prose works of modernist literature. In the history of world literature the 1920s marked innovations in narrative, form, and themes. Characteristically, the rise of literary modernism coincided with significant developments in the reception of Whitman worldwide. In Brazil Whitman was scarcely mentioned in periodicals until the 1920s when he was recognised as “the welcome spokesman of the modern world, the apostle of renovation in form and content.” In the US Emory Holloway's the Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman (1921), containing the poet's private notebooks, early journalistic writings, and other juvenilia in poetry and prose, “laid the foundation for a new era in Whitman studies.” In Germany, Thomas Mann, in his famous “Von Deutscher Republik” speech, praised Whitman's model of American democracy as an example for Germany; Walt Whitmans Werk, Hans Reisiger's two-volume translation of Whitman was published; and Gustav Landauer's translations of Whitman were finally published by expressionist publisher Kurt Wolff. With Hagar Olsson's “Walt Whitman Foregangaren”, which was her attempt “to portray an all-embracing vision of Whitman” and Elmer Diktonius's translation of Whitman's poems, his poetry made “its first appearance in the Finnish literary world.” The Chilean critic and poet, A. Torres-Rioseco's publication of Walt Whitman, (1922) a volume of criticism, biography and translations, initiated a renewed impulse in Hispanic Whitmanism, which had gone through a period of lethargy during the years of the First World War. The New York Times Book Review published a long article, “One Hundred Critics Gauge Walt Whitman's Fame” (10 June 1923) where the author sent out an international query to one hundred people and asked for views on Whitman's current popularity. “The strong consensus was that Whitman's star was rising.” Antonio Arraiz began a Whitmanist trend in Venezuela with the publication of Aspero (1924).