The Weaver-God, He Weaves: Melville and the Poetics of the NovelMelville has long been regarded as an author of raw genius who knew, or cared, little about the art of the novel, and even harbored hostility toward its conventions. In The Weaver-God, He Weaves, Christopher Sten sets out to correct this widespread view, showing not only what Melville knew about the novelist's craft but how he appropriated and transformed a whole series of distinct genres: Typee is presented in the context of the popular romance, with its paired themes of sex and violence; Omoo is viewed in the framework of early Spanish and later French examples of the picaresque novel; and Mardi is seen as an instance of the once widely popular genre of the imaginary voyage. Sten also reveals how Melville radically transformed certain existing genres--the epic novel in Moby-Dick and the historical novel in Israel Potter--or forged profound new directions for genres still in their early stages--the psychological novel in Pierre and the experimental novel in the Confidence-Man. Sten speculates that it is because Melville was so idiosyncratic and inventive that so few critics have understood his close relationship tot eh various novelistic forms. While individual chapters provide discussions of the genre principles Melville employed, Sten's introduction offers valuable theoretical isnight into the importance of genre study (encompassing recent work by Todorov, Hirsch, Hernadi, Jauss, Culler, Scholes, Fowler, Rosmarin, and others), both in the evaluation of literary texts and in the still more fundamental enterprise of determining their meaning. The Weaver-God, He Weaves thus exposes for the first time the extent of Melville's contribution to the novel. This work will be of interest to readers of Melville, 19th-century American literature, literature of the sea, experimental fiction, and to those who work in the field of genre studies. |
Contents
19 | |
41 | |
63 | |
Gentleman Forger Redburn as Bildungsroman | 93 |
Power Dignity in a ManofWar World WhiteJacket as Political Novel | 115 |
Sounding the Self MobyDick as Epic Novel | 135 |
The Divided Self Pierre as Psychological Novel | 217 |
Rewriting Americas Past Israel Potter as Historical Novel | 261 |
Dialogue of Crisis The ConfidenceMan as Experimental Novel | 285 |
The Dilemma of Nature Culture Billy Budd as Problem Novel | 305 |
Notes | 317 |
Bibliography | 339 |
Index | 351 |
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Common terms and phrases
adventure Ahab Ahab's ambiguous American argues autobiographical become Bildungsroman Billy Budd Bulkington called captain chapter character claims comic confidence Confidence-Man crew critics death dream earlier early Enceladus epic example experience explains face fact fate father fear feeling fiction figure finally Fisher King genre heart Herman Melville hero's human identity imaginary voyage imagination irony Isabel Ishmael Ishmael says island Israel Potter later Leyda living Long Ghost Lucy man-of-war Mardi Melville Melville's narrator Moby Dick Moby-Dick Murray mysterious narrative narrator's nature never novel Omoo Pequod picaresque picaresque novel picaro Pierre Pierre's Polynesian portrayed Queequeg readers recognized Redburn reveals romance sailor scene seems sense ship ship's simply soul South Sea sperm whale spiritual Starbuck story suddenly suggests sure symbol Taji thing tion Tommo true truth Typee Vere Vere's WEAVER WEAVER GOD WEAVES White Whale White-Jacket writing Yillah young youth
Popular passages
Page 137 - A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Page 191 - And thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely revelled in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm ; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.
Page 169 - Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way?
Page 159 - Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?
Page 128 - I cannot analyse my heart, though it then stood still within me. But the thing that swayed me to my purpose was not altogether the thought that Captain Claret was about to degrade me, and that I had taken an oath with my soul that he should not. No, I felt my man's manhood so bottomless within me, that no word, no blow, no scourge of Captain Claret could cut me deep enough for that.
Page 148 - ... tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.
Page 90 - I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.