Antebellum at sea : maritime fantasies in nineteenth-century America / Jason Berger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Jason, 1976-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sea stories, American--History and criticism.

Sea stories, American.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Seafaring life in literature.

National characteristics, American, in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (328 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the antebellum years, the Western world's symbolic realities were expanded and challenged as merchant, military, and scientific activity moved into Pacific and Arctic waters. In Antebellum at Sea, Jason Berger explores the roles that early nineteenth-century maritime narratives played in conceptualizing economic and social transitions in the developing global market system and what these chronicles disclose about an era marked by immense change.Focusing on the work of James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville, Berger enhances our understanding of how the nineteenth cen

Contents:

Introduction: Bewitching sea

Fantasies of the common sailor; or, enjoying the knowing Jack Tar

Tarrying with the national: fantasizing the subject of state

Tattoos in Typee: rethinking Melville's "cultural grotesque"

Melville's porno-tropics: re-sexuating pacific encounters

The crater and the master's reign: Cooper's "floating imperium"

The sublime abject of democracy: Melville's "floating imperium"

Epilogue: Incomplete sea.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-4529-4784-8

0-8166-8175-9

OCLC:

846494695