| This dissertation concerns theorizing what I call democratic bardism manifested in the poetry of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Adrienne Rich, and Kyong-Nim Shin. Unlike traditional epic poets, nineteenth-century American poet Whitman, modern African American poet Hughes, contemporary feminist poet Rich, and contemporary Korean poet Shin engage in a democratic relationship with people and fulfill a democratic poetic mission. Instead of teaching people a new national ethos through spiritual enlightenment, these four poets acknowledge all people's ability and celebrate them as who they are. Instead of using conventional poetic language and traditional epic formulas, they creatively use everyday expressions, colloquial dialects, and a free verse style. Ultimately, they aim to restore people's agency by helping them release the repressed energy in their psyches and have the cathartic experience of their bodies being united with their souls, while performing poems.; By theorizing the democratic bardism of Whitman, Hughes, Rich, and Shin, my study demonstrates how Hughes, Rich, and Shin, separately studied as representing different people in terms of time, space, race, gender, and sexuality, share and continue Whitman's democratic bardism. The Preface contrasts traditional epic poets with these four poets and examines the changes of the meaning of the word "bard." Chapter I examines how Whitman formulates democratic bardism by creatively altering Ralph Waldo Emerson's epic vatism. Chapter II investigates how Hughes reviews Whitman's democratic bardism and manifests African American people's complex psychic landscape by using African American folk arts such as the blues and jazz. Chapter III looks into how Rich, in comparison with Hughes, modifies Whitman's democratic bardism and reflects women's psyches by materializing the difficulty of women speaking their minds. Chapter IV examines how Shin embodies a Whitmanian democratic bardism by manifesting the resilient spirit of the Korean people, using Korean folk arts such as Minnyo and Gut. Throughout the chapters, I examine how Whitman, Hughes, Rich, and Shin successfully fulfill a democratic poetic mission, satisfying people's need to be confirmed in who they are and reassuring them of the fact that they are not alone in the hardship of life. |
