Reflect on how "image" has become so central to our culture and how Whitman's iconography can be seen as a construction of a public self.
Access the images in the Whitman Photo Gallery. Be prepared to discuss how various aspects--pose, dress, demeanor-- create a photographic "text" that may be read.
1) After reading Whitman's "Song of Myself," compare the following photographs, characterize their differences, and translate their meanings.
2) Read the then-editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Walt Whitman's account of the Plumbe Gallery and then answer the following questions:
Look at Whitman's eyes in the various daguerreotypes and photographs of him taken during the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. Using Whitman's own analysis of how the eyes function in daguerreotypes, describe the effects of Whitman's eyes in his portraits of himself.
3) After examining the following photographs, discuss your reading of Whitman in relation to the other figures that appear with him.
1) Examine the 1855 Leaves of Grass frontispiece image. Discuss how it might be said to merge with the text as part of an overall message. Then, examine how the 1876 Leaves of Grass frontispiece image interacts with--or even is an integral part of-- the poem "Out from Behind This Mask." Finally, discuss how the later image and poem respond to, or modify, the 1855 image and text.
2) Analyze all of the archived images and discuss Whitman's overall strategies of self-representation.
