Critical Companion To Herman Melville

Critical Companion to Herman Melville examines the life and work of a writer who spent much of his career in obscurity.

This new collection offers timely, critical essays specially commissioned to provide a comprehensive overview of Melville's career.

In a series of 35 original essays, this companion demonstrates the relevance of Melville’s works in the twenty-first century. Presents 35 original essays by scholars from around the world, representing a range of different approaches to Melville Considers Melville in a global context, and looks at the impact of global economies and technologies on the way people read Melville Takes account of the latest and most sophisticated scholarship, including postcolonial and feminist perspectives Locates Melville in his cultural milieu, revising our views of his politics on race, gender and democracy Reveals Melville as a more contemporary writer than his critics have sometimes assumed

Specially commissioned essays provide a critical introduction to one of the most significant writers of nineteenth-century America.

Discover a fascinating new set of perspectives on the life and work of Herman Melville A New Companion to Herman Melville delivers an insightful examination of Melville for the twenty-first century. Building on the success of the first Blackwell Companion to Herman Melville, and offering a variety of tools for reading, writing, and teaching Melville and other authors, this New Companion offers critical, technological, and aesthetic practices that can be employed to read Melville in exciting and revelatory ways. Editors Wyn Kelley and Christopher Ohge create a framework that reflects a pluralistic model for humanities teaching and research. In doing so, the contributing authors highlight the ways in which Melville himself was concerned with the utility of tools within fluid circuits of meaning, and how those ideas are embodied, enacted, and mediated. In addition to considering critical theories of race, gender, sexuality, religion, transatlantic and hemispheric studies, digital humanities, book history, neurodiversity, and new biography and reception studies, this book offers: A thorough introduction to the life of Melville, as well as the twentieth- and twenty-first-century revivals of his work Comprehensive explorations of Melville’s works, including Moby-Dick, Pierre, Piazza Tales, and Israel Potter, as well as his poems and poetic masterpiece Clarel Practical discussions of material books, print culture, and digital technologies as applied to Melville In-depth examinations of Melville's treatment of the natural world Two symposium sections with concise reflections on art and adaptation, and on teaching and public engagement A New Companion to Herman Melville provides essential reading for scholars and students ranging from undergraduate and graduate students to more advanced scholars and specialists in the field.

This reference work covers both Herman Melville's life and writings. It includes a biography and detailed information on his works, on the important themes contained therein, and on the significant people and places in his life. The appendices include suggestions for further reading of both literary and cultural criticism, an essay on Melville's lasting cultural influence, and information on both the fictional ships in his works and the real-life ones on which he sailed.

A critical introduction to the life and literary works of Herman Melville, for student and adult readers.

In early to mid-19th century America, there were growing debates concerning the social acceptability of alcohol and its consumption. Temperance reformers publicly decried the evils of liquor, and America’s greatest authors began to write works of temperance fiction, stories that urged Americans to refrain from imbibing. Herman Melville was born in an era when drunkenness was part of daily life for American men but came of age at a time when the temperance movement had gained social and literary momentum. This first full-length analysis of alcohol and intoxication in Melville’s novels, short fiction and poetry shows how he entered the debate in the latter half of the 19th century. Throughout his work he cautions readers to avoid alcohol and consistently illustrates negative outcomes of drinking.