Melville's City

ISBN-13: 9780521560542 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 332 str.

Wyn Kellely; Wyn Kelley

Opis

This work argues that Melville's relationship to the city is considerably more complex than has generally been believed. By placing him in the historical and cultural context of 19th-century New York, Kelley presents a Melville who borrows from the colourful cultural variety of the city while at the same time investigating its darker and more dangerous social aspects. Kelley shows that images both from Melville and from popular sources of the time represent New York variously as Capital, Labyrinth, City of God, and City of Man; she argues that Melville resists a generalizing or totalizing representation of the city by uncovering its hybrid identity, and giving voice to the poor, the displaced, and the racially excluded. Through examination of works spanning Melville's career, she forges a fresh analysis of the connections between urban and literary form.

Recenzje

"Ultimately, Kelley's text is an astute analysis of an important field of Melville scholarship. It is clearly a well-researched book--Kelley has studied (and apllied) Melville criticism in great depth. One comes away from Melville's City with a good sense of Melville's complex relationship with New York....Kelley's work highlights the oftentimes glossed-over relationship Melville had with that vast world away from the sea--the city." American Studies International

Spis treści

Introduction: Proud City, Proudest Town; Part I. Travelling the Town: 1. Urban space; 2. Spectator in the capital; 3. Provincial in a labyrinth; Part II. Escaping the City: 4. Town ho; 5. Sojourner in the city of man; 6. Pilgrim in the city of God; Conclusion. Citified man; Notes; Index.