Postcolonial Vision of Blake and Whitman : A Comparative Study of British and American Romanticism

布莱克和惠特曼虽然被公认为激进的浪漫主义者，但却从未被比较探讨过。在他们的诗歌作品中，他们同样呈现出一种乌托邦式的、后殖民主义的世界观。我仔细研究了他们作品中使用的修辞和措辞，澄清了这种愿景受到他们反殖民话语中的一些元素的干扰。布莱克创造了一个名叫阿尔比恩的主人公，他应该是一个普世性的人。主人与奴隶、白人与黑人、欧洲人与非欧洲人之间的差别，可望随着宇宙人的创造而消失。但阿尔比恩同时也是英格兰的代表，阿尔比恩首先是英格兰的旧名。因此，布雷克的后殖民方案在阿尔比恩的配置中包含了矛盾的因素。惠特曼在他对主人公“我”的描写中也揭示了同样的矛盾。惠特曼的“我”与布莱克的“阿尔比恩”相同，他声称自己是所有部落和所有国家的代表，但同时又强调美国的优先地位。“我”毕竟是一个相信自己国家至高无上的美国白人男性。因此，我通过分析两位诗人强有力地呈现后殖民视野的方式，以及他们的修辞和措辞违背自己最初的计划的方式，澄清了布莱克和惠特曼之间的同质性。

Though recognized as radical romantics, Blake and Whitman have never been explored comparatively. They equally present a utopian, postcolonial vision of the world in their poetical works. Closely examining rhetoric and phrasing that are used in their works, I have clarified that such a vision is disturbed by some elements in their anti-colonial discourse.Blake created a protagonist called Albion, who is supposed to be a universal man. Distinctions between master and slave, white and black, European and non- European are expected to disappear by the creation of the universal man. But Albion is at the same time representative of England, Albion being an old name for England in the first place. Blake' s postcolonial scheme therefore embraces contradictory elements in the configuration of Albion.Whitman reveals the same kind of contradiction in his depiction of a protagonist called "I." Equivalent to Blake's Albion, Whitman's "I" claims that he is representative of all tribes and all countries but, at the same time, emphasizes a priority of America, The "I" is, after all, a white American male who believes in his own country' s supremacy.I have thus clarified homogeneity between Blake and Whitman by analyzing the way the two poets powerfully present a postcolonial vision and the way their rhetoric and phrasing betray their own initial scheme.