Herman Melville and the politics of the inhuman / Michael Jonik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jonik, Michael, 1979- author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891.

Criticism and interpretation.

Philosophy.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Philosophy.

Melville, Herman.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Criticism and interpretation.

Literature--Philosophy.

Literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 268 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

"Through a careful reconstruction of Melville's interaction with philosophy, Jonik argues that Melville develops a notion of the "inhuman" after Spinoza's radically nonanthropocentricnon-anthropocentric and relational thought. Melville's own political philosophy, in turn, actively disassembles differences between humans and nonhumans, and the animate and inanimate. Jonik has us rethink not only how we read Melville, but also how we understand our deeply inhuman condition."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Melville's inhumanities

The constituents of a chaos: character, materiality and ethopolitics in Moby-Dick

A geology of murmurs: Pierre's inhuman transformations

Outlandish beings, outlandish politics: the Encantadas, or enchanted isles

Misanthropology: commonality and its discontents in The confidence-man

Where wild rocks are set: character and the space of Clarel

Form, relation, and dissolution in Melville's later poetry.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781108420921

1108420923

9781108431095

1108431097

OCLC:

1004511544

Publisher Number:

40028126670