Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of Individualism

Wai Chee Dimock

Published by Princeton University Press 1989

Empire for Liberty

Melville and the Poetics of Individualism

Wai Chee Dimock

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691234564

Overview
Contents

About this book

Wai Chee Dimock approaches Herman Melville not as a timeless genius, but as a historical figure caught in the politics of an imperial nation and an "imperial self." She challenges our customary view by demonstrating a link between the individualism that enabled Melville to write as a sovereign author and the nationalism that allowed America to grow into what Jefferson hoped would be an "empire for liberty."

Reviews

"Empire for Liberty is one of the most important studies of Melville to appear in many years and it sets the terms for critical debate about his work for many years ahead."—Richard Poirier, Editor, Raritan Quarterly

"In this tenacious and articulate study, Professor Dimock explores the 'textual governance' of Melville's fiction: the ways in which the expectations and practice of imperialism in antebellum America necessarily informed--and limited--the poetics of Melville's 'authorial sovereignty' over his writings. Not everyone will agree with her conclusions about Melville's problematical poetics and historicism; yet her book will send the reader back again and again to Melville, equipped with new insights into his art and vision."---R. Bruce Bickley, Jr., American Literature

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Empire for Liberty
CHAPTER I: Nation, Self, and Personification Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 2: Author as Monarch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
CHAPTER 3: Author as Subject Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
CHAPTER 4: Blaming the Victim Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
CHAPTER 5: Knowing the Victim Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
CHAPTER 6: Personified Accounting Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245