Melville's democracy : radical figuration and political form / Jennifer Greiman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greiman, Jennifer, author.

Series:

Stanford scholarship online.

Stanford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Political and social views.

Melville, Herman.

Democracy in literature.

Politics and literature--United States--History.

Politics and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 332 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"For Herman Melville, the instability of democracy held tremendous creative potential. Examining the centrality of political thought to Melville's oeuvre, Jennifer Greiman argues that Melville's densely figurative aesthetics give form to a radical reimagining of democratic foundations, relations, and ways of being--modeling how we can think democracy in political theory today. Across Melville's five decades of writing, from his early Pacific novels to his late poetry, Greiman identifies a literary formalism that is radically political and carries the project of democratic theory in new directions. Recovering Melville's readings in political philosophy and aesthetics, Greiman shows how he engaged with key problems in political theory--the paradox of foundations, the vicious circles of sovereign power, the fragility of the people--to produce a body of radical democratic art and thought. Scenes of green and growing life, circular structures, and images of a groundless world emerge as forms for understanding democracy as a collective project in flux. In Melville's experimental aesthetics, Greiman finds a significant precursor to the tradition of radical democratic theory in the US and France that emphasizes transience and creativity over the foundations and forms prized by liberalism. Such politics, she argues, are necessarily aesthetic: attuned to material and sensible distinctions, open to new forces of creativity"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Part 1. Democracy is green. Verdure, imperial history, and state-of-nature theory ; Verdigris and radical democracy

Part 2. Democracy is round. Round robins and founding violence ; Circles and sovereignty

Part 3. Democracy is groundless. Gravity, slavery, and political prophecy ; Unplanted to the last.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2023.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 26, 2023).

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Greiman, Jennifer Melville's Democracy

ISBN:

9781503634329

OCLC:

1320819799