[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community]]
The Oneida Community was a religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus had already returned in the year 70, making it possible for them to bring about Jesus's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this world, not just Heaven (a belief called Perfectionism).The Oneida Community practicedCommunalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), Complex Marriage, Male Continence, Mutual Criticism and Ascending Fellowship. There were smaller Noyesian communities inWallingford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Putney and Cambridge, Vermont. [1] The community's original 87 members grew to 172 by February 1850, 208 by 1852, and 306 by 1878. The branches were closed in 1854 except for the Wallingford branch, which operated until devastated by a tornado in 1878. The Oneida Community dissolved in 1881, and eventually became the giant silverwarecompany Oneida Limited.[2]
So basically John Humphrey created the Oneida Community with the intention to form a utopian society with a religious edge to it, which to me really emphasis the cult aspect of it. One must also know that 19th century was a period in which religious and political fervor appealed to the masses, or at least a minor percentage of the masses. In Europe, political thinkers, theorists, and philosophers, the most obvious being Marx and Engels though they weren't the first to postulate a theory based on socialistic endeavors like communal sharing and stuff, shared ideas on how society should function. Such political ideas were radical in the largest sense of the word. Cross the Atlantic and enter the good ol' USA, it turns out that the fad of a spiritual awakening is sweeping across the land. I know all this stuff is rather complex and can be viewed from different perspectives, but for the sake of this assignment, I interpret this weird fucking phenomenon as a way for people to express themselves in all ways. With that being said, what's up with Whitman at this time.
Leaves of Grass is a poem that is experimental, innovative, and radical. By writing Leaves of Grass, Whitman explored new ways of expressing inner being and thoughts on paper and thank goodness this didn't lead to a cult following, which I think he would have been against anyway. The whole transcendentalist movement headed by Emerson and Thoreau is relevant to the spiritual awakening going on in America. I mean spiritual as opposed to religious and didactic. But now it seems like being in touch with nature for a long period of time would result in some kind of revelation about the self, nature, society... The topic of sex is Leaves of Grass takes on a very liberal agenda for lack of a better word just like complex marriage in the Oneida Community was counter to the institution of marriage. Just by observing Whitman's photo and body language in our edition of the book, one can see his unrestrained licentious pose . His shirt is partially unbuttoned showing his chest hair, and he's standing leisurely with one hand in his pocket and the other against his hip.
This is all I could come up with for now.
Excellent!
ReplyDelete