Walt Whitman and His Caribbean Interlocutors: José Martí, C.L.R. James, and Pedro Mir Song and Countersong

301 Pages·2021·1.016 MB·English

by  Rafael Bernabe

WaltWhitmanandHisCaribbeanInterlocutors:JoséMartí,C.L.R.James,and
PedroMir
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
LorenBalhorn(Berlin)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SebastianBudgen(Paris)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume 230
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
Walt Whitman and His Caribbean
Interlocutors: José Martí,
C.L.R. James, and Pedro Mir
SongandCountersong
By
RafaelBernabe
leiden | boston
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Bernabe,Rafael,author.
Title:WaltWhitmanandhisCaribbeaninterlocutors:JoséMarti,́ C.L.R.James,and
PedroMir:songandcounter-song/byRafaelBernabe.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2021.|Series:Historicalmaterialismbook
series,15701522;230|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:lccn2021017569(print)|lccn2021017570(ebook)|
isbn9789004462687(hardback)|isbn9789004462748(ebook)
Subjects:lcsh:Whitman,Walt,1819-1892–Criticismandinterpretation.|
Capitalisminliterature.|Civilization,Modern,inliterature.
Classification:lcc ps3238.b462021(print)|lcc ps3238(ebook)|
ddc811/.3–dc23
lcrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021017569
lcebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021017570
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface.
issn1570-1522
isbn978-90-04-46268-7(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-46274-8(e-book)
Copyright2021byRafaelBernabe.PublishedbyKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillNijhoff,BrillHotei,BrillSchöningh,BrillFink,Brill
mentis,Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,BöhlauVerlagandV&RUnipress.
KoninklijkeBrillnvreservestherighttoprotectthispublicationagainstunauthorizeduse.Requestsfor
re-useand/ortranslationsmustbeaddressedtoKoninklijkeBrillnvviabrill.comorcopyright.com.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
ForNatalia
∵

Contents
Introduction 1
1 Marxandthe‘TransformationofHistoryintoWorldHistory’ 5
2 ‘WithinMeLatitudeWidens,LongitudeLengthens’:Whitmanandthe
WorldCreatedbyCapital 11
3 ‘InPathsUntrodden’:Whitman,Nature,Democracyandthe‘Average
ManofTo-day’ 37
4 The‘Emptiness’ofthePresent:Marx,the‘BourgeoisViewpoint’and
Its‘RomanticAntithesis’ 52
5 ‘ThisAll-DevouringModernWord’:Whitman’sCritiqueof
Business 71
6 FromBrooklynFerrytoBrooklynBridge:JoséMartíandthe‘Modern
MultipleLife’ 102
7 ‘TheFinalCulminationofThisVastandVariedRepublic’:Whitman’s
FailedTranscendenceofthePresent 136
8 Whitman:InconsistentDemocrat,YetMoreThanaDemocrat 155
9 A‘DamagedandAlienCivilization’:Martí’sSearchforanAlternative
Modernity 183
10 C.L.R.James’sNotesonAmericanCivilization,ortheSongofthe
C.I.O. 218
11 ‘NowHasCometheHouroftheCountersong’:PedroMirandWalt
Whitman 250
References 273
Index 286

Introduction
Allowmetobeginwithtwostatements.Thefirstwillinitiallyseembothout-
landishandreductionist,thoughIhopethereaderswillrevisetheiropinionas
thebookproceeds.TheotherwasWhitman’spreferreddescriptionofhisown
work,anappreciationmanyothershaveembracedwhilegivingitacelebratory
toneIdonotshare.
Toformulatethefirstclaimratherbluntly:WaltWhitmanwasthepoetofan
expandingcapitalisteconomy,oftheriseofmodernindustryandoftheforma-
tionofacapitalistworldmarket.FormulatedbyaMarxist,thisstatementmay
read as an indictment. It is not. The only passages that can rival Whitman’s
celebration of the world created by capital are to be found in the introduct-
oryportionsof MarxandEngels’sGermanIdeology(1845),thefirstsectionof
theirCommunistManifesto(1848),andsomeofthemoreinspiredpassagesof
Marx’sGrundrisse(1857–8).Infact,onecouldillustratemanypassagesofthese
canonicaltextsofMarx’scritiqueofneo-Hegelianphilosophyandofclassical
political economy with portions of Leavesof Grass.That non-Marxist critics
haveoverlookedthis,andthatanti-Marxistcriticsmaydeemitoutrageous,is
understandable.ThatMarxistsorauthorssympathetictoMarxismhavelargely
ignoredthisismorepuzzling.IcontendthatreadingWhitmanandMarxside
byside,contrapuntally,toborrowatermfromEdwardW.Said,enrichesour
understandingofthesetwoprophetsofmodernity,ofmodernityassuch,and,
thus,ofourselves.1
Turningfromtheprovocativetothecommonplace:Whitmanwasthepoetof
theAmericanexperience,oftheUnitedStates.Whitman’spoeticvoicesought
to encompass the multitudes bubbling within the confines of a new nation
andsoughttogivethemunityofvisionandpurpose.AsJeromeLovingputsit,
hewishedtocelebratethe‘Americancharacter’.2Thiswasthewayhethought
of himself andhowhewantedtoberemembered.Asheconcludedthe‘Pre-
face’ to the first edition of Leavesof Grass: ‘The proof of the poet is that his
countryabsorbshimasaffectionatelyashehasabsorbedit’.3Or,asheurgedin
1 BetsyErkkilahaspointedoutsome‘uncannyoverlappings’ofMarx’sandWhitman’straject-
ories:bornayearfromeachother(Mayof1818andof1819),bothbecameyouthfulnewspaper
editorsintheearly1840s,whileexhibitinganearlyconcernforradicaldemocraticpoliticsand
theconditionofthelabouringclasses.Thedifferencesbetweenthemare,ofcourse,equally
significant.ThisworkcanbereadasafurtherexplorationalongthepathsuggestedbyErkkila.
Erkkila2007,p.36.SeeErkkila1989.
2 Loving1982,p.77.
3 ‘Preface’inWaltWhitman.CompletePoetryandCollectedProse,editedbyJustinKaplan(New
© RafaelBernabe,2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004462748_002
2 introduction
‘StartingfromPaumanok’:‘TakemyleavesAmerica/…/fortheyareyourown
offspring’.4 But while seeking America’s distinct poetic expression,Whitman
alsoclaimedaspecialrolefortheUnitedStates.Inanyperiod,heproclaimedin
‘ByBlueOntario’sShore’,‘onenationmustlead,/Onelandmustbethepromise
andrelianceofthefuture’.5Thesameideaandeventhesamewordsreappearin
DemocraticVistas:‘Theindividualityofonenationmustthen,always,leadthe
world.Cantherebeanydoubtwhotheleaderoughttobe?’6Similarly,inthe
prefacetothe1872editionof Leavesof GrasshepresentedtheUnitedStates
asnothinglessthanthe‘culmination’of ‘historyandhumanity’.7Moreoften
thannot,Whitmanthoughtof thisleadingroleinmoralandspiritualrather
thanmilitaryorpoliticalterms.HethusarguedthattheUnitedStatescouldnot
takeontheleadingroleheassignedtoitwithoutfirstcreatingtruly‘noblemen
andwomen’,capableofexercisingaspiritualandcomradelyinfluenceoverthe
world.Butbeyondallthequalifierswemaytackontoourdescriptionof his
visionofAmerica’sprivilegeddestiny,thereisnodoubtthat,whateverelsehe
was, the good gray poet was also an American nationalist, deeply convinced
of thespecial,centralanduniqueplacetheUnitedStateswascalleduponto
occupyintheaffairsofthemodernworld.
FormulatedbyacriticofUSimperialpolicies,oftheglobalassertionofUS
political,economicandmilitarypowerandasupporterof hiscountry’spolit-
ical independence from the United States, this may seem to be a definition
ofWhitmanastheenemy.Itisnot.Anti-imperialismneednotbebasedona
crudeanti-Americanism.Infact,anti-imperialismisperfectlycompatiblewith
admiration for more than one dimension of modern American society. The
authorof thisbookisbynomeansthefirstcriticof USimperialismfromthe
Caribbean who has been seduced by the idea of exploring the work of Walt
Whitman as one of the ways of coming to terms with metropolitan culture,
with ‘American civilization’, while seeking a more equal and freer relation-
ship with it. Such was also the case of the Cuban José Martí (1853–95), the
TrinidadianC.L.R.James(1901–89)andtheDominicanPedroMir(1913–2000).
Thisworkbringstheircontributionstobearontheconversationitimagines
betweenMarxandWhitman.ItexploreshowtheyreadWhitmanandsomeof
York:TheLibraryofAmerica,1982),p.26.AllquotesfromWhitman,unlessotherwiseindic-
ated,aretakenfromthiscollection.Ihavechosenitbecauseitisreadilyavailable,andcon-
venientlyincludesboththefirst(1855)aswellasthelast(1892)editionofLeavesofGrass,and
alsokeyproseworkssuchasDemocraticVistas(1871)andSpecimenDays(1882).
4 ‘StartingfromPaumanok’,p.177.
5 ‘ByBlueOntario’sShore’,p.471.
6 Whitman[1871],p.981.
7 ‘Preface,1872’,p.1001.