Dr. Jimmie Killingsworth is a professor and is the head of the Englsih Department at Texas A&M University. He has written at least eight books as well as a textbook. He won the JR Gould Award in 2007 given by technical communication. He was invited to UNC Wilmington to talk about animalism in Walt Whitman’s poetry for the 2010 Katherine K. Buckner Lecture series.
Dr. Killingsworth began his lecture by saying that he invites us all “to make movies in our heads” of what is going to speak about. Animality refers to the animal nature of human beings. There is clear animal existence in human nature, and animality refers to this instead of the spiritual side of man. Dr. Killingsworth explained animality in Walt Whitman’s poetry as people putting other people or animals into a category they want to master. Walt Whitman puts humans in nature and not above it.
Dr. Killingsworth mentioned Freud’s three pictures of the universe during his lecture. He sees the animism picture as basic living of beliefs. The religious picture is a disenfranchisement from nature, and the scientific picture denies the spirit altogether.
I had a very hard time understanding all of Dr. Jimmie Killingsworth’s thoughts and ideas. I tried to understand what he meant by animalism and animality, but it was all very complex to me. He seemed to speak about animals in Walt Whitman’s poetry as though they are eloquent, placid, and always satisfied. They are very different from humans in this way because humans are definitely not always satisfied. I think he meant that animalism flattens the hierarchy of animals and humans, but again, this was a very difficult concept for me to grasp. I understood him to say that animalism and animality gave a voice to the oppressed. The oppressed in this situation would be the animals. It was quite interesting to hear his point of view.

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