I Sing of Myself, a Loaded Gun: Sexual Identity and Nineteenth-Century American Authors

Abstract

This article will discuss the ways in which modern identity politics have encouraged us to label the sexuality of American authors of the past and the effects of those labels. Specifically discussing Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, I will discuss the history of nineteenth-century American sexuality, the assumptions placed upon Dickinson and Whitman with regard to their sexual identities, the political and social implications, and modern media consumption and presentation of those identities.