Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of Individualism

by Wai Chee Dimock

Overview

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."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691234564
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	666 KB

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"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

Richard Poirier

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"

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

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.

American Literature - R. Bruce Bickley

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