Abstract
Literary artists often act as the reflector of the socio-cultural and political issues of their society and time. In many societies, the literary artist is the chronicler of societal experience and sometimes charts the path for society to achieve sanity and progress. The concern of this paper therefore is to examine how writers can function as the conveyers of values tailored to foster sanity and development in their society. A work of literature could help shape how citizens view themselves and their country in relation to other countries. This paper aims to demonstrate the role of literature in fostering national values in citizens. Every country operates on values that act as the driving force for communal harmony and national development. Through literature, writers, aside from political leaders, can help firmly cement those values and visions of their country in the people's hearts. This study examines how the notion of national value is reflected in the work of American poet, Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass. The paper draws from postcolonial theory and concepts of transcendentalism to examine national values in some selected poems in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. This paper concludes that through the power of literary imagination, writers can shape the values of their country.
Keywords: Literature, national values, postcolonial theory, transcendentalism, American Literature.
