The Weaver-God, He Weaves: Melville and the Poetics of the NovelKent State University Press, 1996 - 361 páginas Melville has long been regarded as an author of raw genius who knew, or cared, little about the art of the novel, and even harbored hostility toward its conventions. In The Weaver-God, He Weaves, Christopher Sten sets out to correct this widespread view, showing not only what Melville knew about the novelist's craft but how he appropriated and transformed a whole series of distinct genres: Typee is presented in the context of the popular romance, with its paired themes of sex and violence; Omoo is viewed in the framework of early Spanish and later French examples of the picaresque novel; and Mardi is seen as an instance of the once widely popular genre of the imaginary voyage. Sten also reveals how Melville radically transformed certain existing genres--the epic novel in Moby-Dick and the historical novel in Israel Potter--or forged profound new directions for genres still in their early stages--the psychological novel in Pierre and the experimental novel in the Confidence-Man. Sten speculates that it is because Melville was so idiosyncratic and inventive that so few critics have understood his close relationship tot eh various novelistic forms. While individual chapters provide discussions of the genre principles Melville employed, Sten's introduction offers valuable theoretical isnight into the importance of genre study (encompassing recent work by Todorov, Hirsch, Hernadi, Jauss, Culler, Scholes, Fowler, Rosmarin, and others), both in the evaluation of literary texts and in the still more fundamental enterprise of determining their meaning. The Weaver-God, He Weaves thus exposes for the first time the extent of Melville's contribution to the novel. This work will be of interest to readers of Melville, 19th-century American literature, literature of the sea, experimental fiction, and to those who work in the field of genre studies. |
Índice
19 | |
41 | |
Breaking Away Mardi as Imaginary Voyage | 63 |
Gentleman Forger Redburn as Bildungsroman | 93 |
Power Dignity in a ManofWar World WhiteJacket as Political Novel | 115 |
Sounding the Self MobyDick as Epic Novel | 135 |
The Divided Self Pierre as Psychological Novel | 217 |
Rewriting Americas Past Israel Potter as Historical Novel | 261 |
Dialogue of Crisis The ConfidenceMan as Experimental Novel | 285 |
The Dilemma of Nature Culture Billy Budd as Problem Novel | 305 |
Notes | 317 |
339 | |
351 | |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
The Weaver-God, He Weaves: Melville and the Poetics of the Novel Christopher Sten Visualização de excertos - 1996 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
adventure Ahab Ahab's ambiguous American argues autobiographical become Bildungsroman Billy Budd Bulkington called captain chapter character claims comic confidence Confidence-Man crew critics death dream earlier early Enceladus epic example experience explains face fact fate father fear feeling fiction figure finally Fisher King genre heart Herman Melville hero's human identity imaginary voyage imagination irony Isabel Ishmael Ishmael says island Israel Potter later Leyda living Long Ghost Lucy man-of-war Mardi Melville Melville's narrator Moby Dick Moby-Dick Murray mysterious narrative narrator's nature never novel Omoo Pequod picaresque picaresque novel picaro Pierre Pierre's Polynesian portrayed Queequeg readers recognized Redburn reveals romance sailor scene seems sense ship ship's simply soul South Sea sperm whale spiritual Starbuck story suddenly suggests sure symbol Taji thing tion Tommo true truth Typee Vere Vere's WEAVER WEAVER GOD WEAVES White Whale White-Jacket writing Yillah young youth
Referências a este livro
Solitude and Society in the Works of Herman Melville and Edith Wharton Linda C. Cahir Pré-visualização indisponível - 1999 |