Alfred Romero
10/18/2022
Professor Frank
Introduction to Literary Theory & Criticism
QCQ#6
In section 11 of his poem “Song of Myself”, American poet Walt Whitman addresses the twenty-eight-year-old woman that the poem follows, describing how she splashes “in the water there, yet stay[s] stock still in [her] room” (Whitman section 11, line 9).
As I’m reading this poem and specifically this line, I immediately trace back to certain ideas discussed in class. These ideas would stem from Mulvey’s theory, like how it was applied in those four movie clips within the remote assignment. Even more specifically, when I envision this scenery like a movie clip inside my head, I can see the gaze being applied in terms of how the camera would be oriented. As this woman imagines being with those bathing men, I can almost envision that the camera would sort of follow the same guidelines it did with the movie clips, with the only difference being that the genders are switched. Because the genders are switched however, I’m not sure what this would mean for Mulvey’s idea of “an abusive version of masculine heterosexuality” (Parker 176). While I’m envisioning this in terms of the same concept as Mulvey’s theory, I can definitely see and agree with her idea of a gaze, but I’m not sure I see the same take on masculine heterosexuality when the roles are reversed. A bit of a random sidenote, but this scene also reminds me of that bath scene in Mulan. I know Mulan’s actually in the bath with them, whereas in this poem the woman just imagines herself joining the scene, but it still kind of reminded me of it.
A question I’d have is a bit broad and directed towards Whitman himself. What does this section of the poem mean to him? I don’t have context as to whether this is directly related to other sections of the poem because I haven’t read those other sections. But what does this scenery mean to Whitman? Is he expressing a scene that he’s seen, or is he expressing his own feelings through this scene?
