Melville and Aesthetics

Melville and Aesthetics

Melville and Aesthetics Edited by Samuel Otter and Geoffrey Sanborn

MELVILLE AND AESTHETICS Copyright Samuel Otter and Geoffrey Sanborn, 2011. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-11379-4 All rights reserved. First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-29556-2 ISBN 978-0-230-12004-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230120044 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Melville and aesthetics / edited by Samuel Otter and Geoffrey Sanborn. p. cm. 1. Melville, Herman, 1819 1891 Criticism and interpretation. 2. Aesthetics in literature. I. Sanborn, Geoffrey. II. Otter, Samuel, 1956 III. Title. PS2388.A35M45 2011 813.3 dc22 2011005463 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2011 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2013

Contents List of Abbreviations vii Introduction: Aesthetics and Melville 1 Samuel Otter and Geoffrey Sanborn 1 Blubber: Melville s Bad Writing 11 Alex Calder 2 Melville s Ornamentation: On Irrelevant Beauty 33 Theo Davis 3 Melvillean Provocation and the Critical Art of Devotion 49 Andrew DuBois 4 Strange Sensations: Sex and Aesthetics in The Counterpane 65 Christopher Looby 5 Dead Bones and Honest Wonders: The Aesthetics of Natural Science in Moby-Dick 85 Jennifer J. Baker 6 Pulled by the Line: Speed and Photography in Moby-Dick 103 Laura Rigal 7 Pierre s Nominal Conversions 117 Elizabeth Duquette 8 The Silhouette of a Content : Bartleby and American Literary Specificity 137 Nancy Ruttenburg 9 The Revolutionary Aesthetics of Israel Potter 157 Robert S. Levine 10 Theatricality, Strangeness, and the Aesthetics of Plurality in The Confidence-Man 173 Jennifer Greiman

vi Contents 11 Battle Music: Melville and the Forms of War 193 Peter Coviello 12 Melville s Song of Songs: Clarel as Aesthetic Pilgrimage 213 Ilana Pardes Works Cited 235 Notes on Contributors 249 Index 251

Abbreviations BB Cl CM Corr CP IP J M MD O PT P Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative). Ed. Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts, Jr. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1962. Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1991. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1984. Correspondence. Ed. Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1993. Collected Poems of Herman Melville. Ed. Howard P. Vincent. Chicago: Hendricks House, 1947. Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1982. Journals. Ed. Howard C. Horsford with Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1989. Mardi; and a Voyage Thither. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1970. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1988. Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1968. The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1987. Pierre; or, The Ambiguities. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1971.

viii Abbreviations PP T Published Poems: Battle-Pieces, John Marr, Timoleon. Ed. Robert C. Ryan, Harrison Hayford, Alma MacDougall Reising, and G. Thomas Tanselle (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 2009). Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. Ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern UP/Newberry Library, 1968).