Illume/Knapp Lecture Three: The Hospitals and Beyond - Mark Edmundson, PhD

Location

Saints Tekakwitha and Serra Hall, 200, Humanities Center

Free

Whitman’s quest culminates not on the last page of Song of Myself, but in the Civil War hospitals where he spent two years bringing aid to the wounded and dying. There he became a version of the democratic individual that the poem prophesies. From this position, we will explore our current crisis of democracy - and see how we might resolve it.

This is the third lecture in a the series, Walt Whitman and the Battle for Democracy. In this sequence of lectures, Dr. Mark Edmundson, professor at the University of Virginia, discusses Walt Whitman, his poetry and his vision of democracy. Though Whitman published his greatest poem Song of Myself in 1855, he remains a poet of the present: we still have not fully realized, or even completely understood, his hopes. Reflecting on Whitman today puts us in a position to respond to our current crisis of democracy.

Illume Speaker Series

To champion the tradition and future of the artes liberales, the Humanities Center has created the Illume Speaker Series featuring our own renowned faculty scholars, invited thought leaders and prominent public figures to advance the liberal arts on our campus and inspire lifelong learning in our surrounding communities.