Walt Whitman in the Middle East: Modernism in Search of Identity and a New Language
- Issue:
- Received: 25 Jul. 2025
- Approved after reviewing: 25 Oct. 2025
- Date of publication: 25 Dec. 2025
- УДК / UDK: 821.111(73).0+ 821.411.21.0
- Publication Type: Research Article
- DOI:
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- Abstract:
The article examines Walt Whitman’s influence on Middle Eastern literature, particularly in Arabic and Iranian contexts. The author analyzes how his poetry was received by poets in the region during the 20th century and its impact on the development of Middle Eastern modernism. Special attention is given to the early reception of Whitman — before his works began to appear in translations into Arabic and Persian. For the Arabic reception of Whitman, the literature of Arab emigration to the USA (the so-called “mahjar” literature represented by Ameen Al-Rihani and Kahlil Gibran) played a significant role, while in Iran, Whitman was initially read within the framework of enlightenment trends of the consti tutional era and later became a symbol of poetic renewal. The article explores how Whitmanian poetics became part of Middle Eastern modernism and how this process paralleled the emergence of new translations of Whitman into the region’s languages. Among the Whitmanian poets in the Arab world, the figure of the Syro-Lebanese poet Adonis stands out, and in Iran — Nima Yushij. The article also examines the cultural and historical context of Whitman’s reception in the region — attempts to link Whitman’s poetry with the tasks facing Middle Eastern modernists, especially the tasks of national revival. The article demon strates how Whitman became a symbol of literary renewal and a source of in spiration for poets striving to transcend classical forms and find new modes of expression.
- Keywords: Walt Whitman, Middle East, modernism, identity, poetry, translation, Ara bic literature, Persian literature, Adonis, Nima Yushij, mahjar literature.
- For citation:
Korchagin, Kirill. “Walt Whitman in the Middle East: Modernism in Search of Identity and a New Language.” Literature of the Americas, no. 19 (2025): 36–67. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2025-19-36-67
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