Patron: President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer

KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007

<<< American and Austrian Literature and Film: Influences, Interactions and Intersections


 

Hermann Bahr and Walt Whitman: Kindred Spirits

Donald G. Daviau (University of California at Riverside)

Email: daviau@aon.at

 


 

ABSTRACT:

This paper will examine the exceptional influence, intersection and interaction of the thinking of two major writers and show how the Austrian Hermann Bahr attempted to spread the thinking of the American Walt Whitman to as wide an audience as possible. Bahr first became acquainted with the writings of Whitman in 1908 and immediately recognized the American writer as a kindred spirit. In his works Bahr found reenforcement for many of the ideas he had developed in his program of modernity in the 1890s, and from that first acquaintance on he mentioned the American original frequently in his writings. He clearly ranks highly as one of the first to publicize Whitman in Europe, thereby contributing importantly to his reception. He collected everything about Whitman that he could locate and continuously spread his reputation, stressing his importance as a writer and thinker, whose ideas should be known to everyone.. Bahr devoted the entire year 1919 to an intensive study of "den größten unter den geborenen Kameraden," because he believed that Whitman's democratic ideas were especially important to the world at that particular time


Patron: President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer

KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007