Melville's wisdom : religion, skepticism, and literature in nineteenth-century America / Damien B. Schlarb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schlarb, Damien, author.

Series:

American Academy of Religion academy series.

AAR Academy Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion in literature.

Bible and literature.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Religion.

Melville, Herman.

Bible. Old Testament--In literature.

Bible. Old Testament.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

In Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, Damien B. Schlarb explores the manner in which Herman Melville responds to the spiritual crisis of modernity by using the language of the biblical Old Testament wisdom books to moderate contemporary discourses on religion, skepticism, and literature. Schlarb argues that attending to Melville's engagement with the wisdom books (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) can help us understand a paradox at the heart of American modernity: the simultaneous displacement and affirmation of biblical language and religious culture.

Contents:

Cover

Series

Melville's Wisdom

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Modernity, Melville, and Wisdom

1. Divine Justice and Sublime Suffering: The Book of Job

The Hoary Deep: Multi-​perspectival Inquiry in Mardi

The Book of Many Jobs: The Literary Representations of Job in Moby-​Dick

What Job Taught the Lawyer: Moral Didacticism in "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

A Potsherd World: Suffering as Topography in The Encantadas

What to Do with Job

2. Dread, Foolishness, Wisdom: The Book of Proverbs

Revolutionary Proverbs: Politics and Jurisprudence in Mardi

Fear God and the Rod: The Religious Rhetoric of Scientism in "The Lightning-​Rod Man"

The Avatar of Folly: The Battle against Wisdom in Modernity in The Confidence-​Man

The Problem of Evil: The Reptilian Moderner in Billy Budd, Sailor

Wisdom Aphorisms and the Postsecular

3. Moderation, Self-​Reflection, Evil: The Book of Ecclesiastes

Wisdom as a Guidebook: Truth-​Seeking as Wayfinding in Redburn

Wisdom as Corrective: Introspection in Moby-​Dick

Seeking Too Intensely: The Problem of Radical Inquiry in Pierre

The Politics of Moderation: The Civil War as Religious Crisis in Battle-​Pieces

Reflection and Critique in Wisdom

4. Conclusion: Melville's Wisdom

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-758558-2

0-19-758559-0

0-19-758557-4

OCLC:

1246676418