Melville and the Idea of Blackness

Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth Century America
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-107-02206-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 164, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 505 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture

By examining the unique problems that 'blackness' signifies in Moby-Dick, Pierre, 'Benito Cereno' and 'The Encantadas', Christopher Freeburg analyzes how Herman Melville grapples with the social realities of racial difference in nineteenth-century America. Where Melville's critics typically read blackness as either a metaphor for the haunting power of slavery or an allegory of moral evil, Freeburg asserts that blackness functions as the site where Melville correlates the sociopolitical challenges of transatlantic slavery and U.S. colonial expansion with philosophical concerns about mastery. By focusing on Melville's iconic interracial encounters, Freeburg reveals the important role blackness plays in Melville's portrayal of characters' arduous attempts to seize their own destiny, amass scientific knowledge and perfect themselves. A valuable resource for scholars and graduate students in American literature, this text will also appeal to those working in American, African American and postcolonial studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Freeburg, Christopher

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Prosaautoren
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments; Preface: darkening the past; Introduction: resurrecting blackness; 1. Knowing the 'bottomless deep': Moby-Dick; 2. Living 'within the maelstrom': Pierre; 3. Thwarting the 'regulated mind': 'Benito Cereno'; 4. Embodying the 'assaults of time': 'The Encantadas'; Notes.

Über Autor(innen)

Freeburg, Christopher
Christopher Freeburg is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his Master's from Stanford University. His work has appeared in journals such as American Literature and Modern Fiction Studies.