Melville's City

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-521-56054-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 100, 330 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 691 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture

Melville's City 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 nineteenth-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 generalising or totalising 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 new analysis of the connections between urban and literary form.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kelley, Wyn

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Amerikanische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; Proud city, proudest town; Part I. Traveling the Town: 1. Urban space; 2. Spectator in the capital; 3. Provincial in a labyrinth; Part II. Escaping the City: 4. Town Ho; 5. Soujourner in the City of Man; 6. Pilgrim in the City of God; Conclusion: citified man.