WaltWhitmanandHisCaribbeanInterlocutors:JoséMartí,C.L.R.James,and PedroMir Historical Materialism Book Series EditorialBoard LorenBalhorn(Berlin) DavidBroder(Rome) SebastianBudgen(Paris) SteveEdwards(London) JuanGrigera(London) MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam) PeterThomas(London) volume 230 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm Walt Whitman and His Caribbean Interlocutors: José Martí, C.L.R. James, and Pedro Mir SongandCountersong By RafaelBernabe leiden | boston LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Bernabe,Rafael,author. Title:WaltWhitmanandhisCaribbeaninterlocutors:JoséMarti,́ C.L.R.James,and PedroMir:songandcounter-song/byRafaelBernabe. Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2021.|Series:Historicalmaterialismbook series,15701522;230|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:lccn2021017569(print)|lccn2021017570(ebook)| isbn9789004462687(hardback)|isbn9789004462748(ebook) Subjects:lcsh:Whitman,Walt,1819-1892–Criticismandinterpretation.| Capitalisminliterature.|Civilization,Modern,inliterature. Classification:lcc ps3238.b462021(print)|lcc ps3238(ebook)| ddc811/.3–dc23 lcrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021017569 lcebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021017570 TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn1570-1522 isbn978-90-04-46268-7(hardback) isbn978-90-04-46274-8(e-book) Copyright2021byRafaelBernabe.PublishedbyKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillNijhoff,BrillHotei,BrillSchöningh,BrillFink,Brill mentis,Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,BöhlauVerlagandV&RUnipress. 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ForNatalia ∵ Contents Introduction 1 1 Marxandthe‘TransformationofHistoryintoWorldHistory’ 5 2 ‘WithinMeLatitudeWidens,LongitudeLengthens’:Whitmanandthe WorldCreatedbyCapital 11 3 ‘InPathsUntrodden’:Whitman,Nature,Democracyandthe‘Average ManofTo-day’ 37 4 The‘Emptiness’ofthePresent:Marx,the‘BourgeoisViewpoint’and Its‘RomanticAntithesis’ 52 5 ‘ThisAll-DevouringModernWord’:Whitman’sCritiqueof Business 71 6 FromBrooklynFerrytoBrooklynBridge:JoséMartíandthe‘Modern MultipleLife’ 102 7 ‘TheFinalCulminationofThisVastandVariedRepublic’:Whitman’s FailedTranscendenceofthePresent 136 8 Whitman:InconsistentDemocrat,YetMoreThanaDemocrat 155 9 A‘DamagedandAlienCivilization’:Martí’sSearchforanAlternative Modernity 183 10 C.L.R.James’sNotesonAmericanCivilization,ortheSongofthe C.I.O. 218 11 ‘NowHasCometheHouroftheCountersong’:PedroMirandWalt Whitman 250 References 273 Index 286 Introduction Allowmetobeginwithtwostatements.Thefirstwillinitiallyseembothout- landishandreductionist,thoughIhopethereaderswillrevisetheiropinionas thebookproceeds.TheotherwasWhitman’spreferreddescriptionofhisown work,anappreciationmanyothershaveembracedwhilegivingitacelebratory toneIdonotshare. Toformulatethefirstclaimratherbluntly:WaltWhitmanwasthepoetofan expandingcapitalisteconomy,oftheriseofmodernindustryandoftheforma- tionofacapitalistworldmarket.FormulatedbyaMarxist,thisstatementmay read as an indictment. It is not. The only passages that can rival Whitman’s celebration of the world created by capital are to be found in the introduct- oryportionsof MarxandEngels’sGermanIdeology(1845),thefirstsectionof theirCommunistManifesto(1848),andsomeofthemoreinspiredpassagesof Marx’sGrundrisse(1857–8).Infact,onecouldillustratemanypassagesofthese canonicaltextsofMarx’scritiqueofneo-Hegelianphilosophyandofclassical political economy with portions of Leavesof Grass.That non-Marxist critics haveoverlookedthis,andthatanti-Marxistcriticsmaydeemitoutrageous,is understandable.ThatMarxistsorauthorssympathetictoMarxismhavelargely ignoredthisismorepuzzling.IcontendthatreadingWhitmanandMarxside byside,contrapuntally,toborrowatermfromEdwardW.Said,enrichesour understandingofthesetwoprophetsofmodernity,ofmodernityassuch,and, thus,ofourselves.1 Turningfromtheprovocativetothecommonplace:Whitmanwasthepoetof theAmericanexperience,oftheUnitedStates.Whitman’spoeticvoicesought to encompass the multitudes bubbling within the confines of a new nation andsoughttogivethemunityofvisionandpurpose.AsJeromeLovingputsit, hewishedtocelebratethe‘Americancharacter’.2Thiswasthewayhethought of himself andhowhewantedtoberemembered.Asheconcludedthe‘Pre- face’ to the first edition of Leavesof Grass: ‘The proof of the poet is that his countryabsorbshimasaffectionatelyashehasabsorbedit’.3Or,asheurgedin 1 BetsyErkkilahaspointedoutsome‘uncannyoverlappings’ofMarx’sandWhitman’straject- ories:bornayearfromeachother(Mayof1818andof1819),bothbecameyouthfulnewspaper editorsintheearly1840s,whileexhibitinganearlyconcernforradicaldemocraticpoliticsand theconditionofthelabouringclasses.Thedifferencesbetweenthemare,ofcourse,equally significant.ThisworkcanbereadasafurtherexplorationalongthepathsuggestedbyErkkila. Erkkila2007,p.36.SeeErkkila1989. 2 Loving1982,p.77. 3 ‘Preface’inWaltWhitman.CompletePoetryandCollectedProse,editedbyJustinKaplan(New © RafaelBernabe,2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004462748_002 2 introduction ‘StartingfromPaumanok’:‘TakemyleavesAmerica/…/fortheyareyourown offspring’.4 But while seeking America’s distinct poetic expression,Whitman alsoclaimedaspecialrolefortheUnitedStates.Inanyperiod,heproclaimedin ‘ByBlueOntario’sShore’,‘onenationmustlead,/Onelandmustbethepromise andrelianceofthefuture’.5Thesameideaandeventhesamewordsreappearin DemocraticVistas:‘Theindividualityofonenationmustthen,always,leadthe world.Cantherebeanydoubtwhotheleaderoughttobe?’6Similarly,inthe prefacetothe1872editionof Leavesof GrasshepresentedtheUnitedStates asnothinglessthanthe‘culmination’of ‘historyandhumanity’.7Moreoften thannot,Whitmanthoughtof thisleadingroleinmoralandspiritualrather thanmilitaryorpoliticalterms.HethusarguedthattheUnitedStatescouldnot takeontheleadingroleheassignedtoitwithoutfirstcreatingtruly‘noblemen andwomen’,capableofexercisingaspiritualandcomradelyinfluenceoverthe world.Butbeyondallthequalifierswemaytackontoourdescriptionof his visionofAmerica’sprivilegeddestiny,thereisnodoubtthat,whateverelsehe was, the good gray poet was also an American nationalist, deeply convinced of thespecial,centralanduniqueplacetheUnitedStateswascalleduponto occupyintheaffairsofthemodernworld. FormulatedbyacriticofUSimperialpolicies,oftheglobalassertionofUS political,economicandmilitarypowerandasupporterof hiscountry’spolit- ical independence from the United States, this may seem to be a definition ofWhitmanastheenemy.Itisnot.Anti-imperialismneednotbebasedona crudeanti-Americanism.Infact,anti-imperialismisperfectlycompatiblewith admiration for more than one dimension of modern American society. The authorof thisbookisbynomeansthefirstcriticof USimperialismfromthe Caribbean who has been seduced by the idea of exploring the work of Walt Whitman as one of the ways of coming to terms with metropolitan culture, with ‘American civilization’, while seeking a more equal and freer relation- ship with it. Such was also the case of the Cuban José Martí (1853–95), the TrinidadianC.L.R.James(1901–89)andtheDominicanPedroMir(1913–2000). Thisworkbringstheircontributionstobearontheconversationitimagines betweenMarxandWhitman.ItexploreshowtheyreadWhitmanandsomeof York:TheLibraryofAmerica,1982),p.26.AllquotesfromWhitman,unlessotherwiseindic- ated,aretakenfromthiscollection.Ihavechosenitbecauseitisreadilyavailable,andcon- venientlyincludesboththefirst(1855)aswellasthelast(1892)editionofLeavesofGrass,and alsokeyproseworkssuchasDemocraticVistas(1871)andSpecimenDays(1882). 4 ‘StartingfromPaumanok’,p.177. 5 ‘ByBlueOntario’sShore’,p.471. 6 Whitman[1871],p.981. 7 ‘Preface,1872’,p.1001.