Walt Whitman's Baby Talk by Matt Cohen - PDF
1 2020-02-26T20:36:52+00:00 Joelle Thomas 0feb3b2b7a8befeee2c7d2d710d303ed96772141 1 1 plain 2020-02-26T20:36:52+00:00 Joelle Thomas 0feb3b2b7a8befeee2c7d2d710d303ed96772141This page is referenced by:
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Commentary: Essay and Podcast
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Summary
A Confederate veteran was such a big fan of Walt Whitman that he named his newborn son after the poet. When he wrote a letter to tell Whitman, he wrote it in the voice of that son -- in baby talk. Matt Cohen examines this curious rhetorical performance, and its white supremacist overtones, to confront an uncomfortable past and better understand some of the "literacies of the rural South."
Download entire essay as PDF
Matt Cohen discusses this letter to Whitman in this episode of our podcast series, Listening to Hidden Literacies.