Melville and the Idea of Blackness

'Freeburg's insistence that Melville's representations of race are both historically concrete and philosophically abstract (beating on questions of ontology and epistemology) makes this book crucial for thinking about how Melville's writings address the complex relation between literature and history.' Hennig Cohen Prize Committee, The Melville Society

Autorentext

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.

Klappentext

Freeburg analyzes how Melville grapples with realities of racial difference in nineteenth-century America by examining 'blackness' in Melville's fiction.

Inhalt

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.