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Abstract Starting from the polyphonism in Whitman’s poetry, this paper interprets dialogism and carnivalism in Leaves of Grass, discussing its critique of modernity and its communal imagination of the working class. Dialogism symbolizes the crash and fall of the monologic world, which results from the combat with and deconstruction of the existing imperial industry, colonial hegemony, and racial violence by polyphonic dialogues among the lower classes. Dialogism also includes the critique of modernity and the pursuit of spiritual values such as independence and freedom, enhanced by mutual communications between different subjects. Carnivalistic square and banquet shape an open social structure, piecing through class boundaries and engendering a new social order as exhibited by democracy and equality. Comradeship and country spirit promote the idea of rebuilding a country with people as the its primacy. They also embody individuals’ pursuit of equal rights and the recognition of communal membership in a multi-cultural historic context where individual members may have sense of belonging that take the U.S. as their realistic homeland. Whitman’s polyphonic artistry initiates a new direction of modern poetry, and becomes the ideological banner of the new world, encouraging the proletariats across the world to defeat capitalist powers and turn over a new page in history.
Key words: dialogism; carnivalism; polyphonic; critique of modernity; communal imagination
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