This book unfurls and examines the anti-slavery allegory at the subtextual core of Herman Melville s famed novel, Moby-Dick. Brian Pellar points to symbols and allusions in the novel such as the albinism of the famed whale, the Ship of State motif, Calhoun s cords, the equator, Jonah, Narcissus, St. Paul, and Thomas Hobbe s Leviathan. The work contextualizes these devices within a historical discussion of the Compromise of 1850 and subsequently strengthened Fugitive Slave Laws. Drawing on a rich variety of sources such as unpublished papers, letters, reviews, and family memorabilia, the...

For half a century, J. Hillis Miller has been a premier figure in English and comparative literature, influencing and leading the direction of literary studies. What is less well-known is that he has been equally influential in Conrad studies with his work on nihilism, language, and narrative in Joseph Conrad's fiction. Returning to Conrad at different stages of his long career--reading and rereading him in light of new critical trends--Miller continually discovered new aspects of the influential author's fiction. This volume, edited by John G. Peters and Jakob Lothe, charts Miller's shifting...