White Lies : Melville's Narratives of Facts / John Samson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Samson, John, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The narrative of facts—probably best exemplified in the literature of exploration—was an immensely popular genre in mid-nineteenth-century America. In White Lies, John Samson offers full contextual readings of Melville's five major narratives of facts—Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, and Israel Potter. Samson demonstrates that in these novels Melville critically rewrote the sources on which he drew, in effect making the genre itself a subject of his writing.In his introduction, Samson discusses Melville's knowledge of the genre and its ideology. He then reads each novel in terms of Melville's confrontation with its sources. In each, Samson says, an unreliable narrator represents particular ideological tendencies in Melville's sources. Melville heightens and extends these tendencies, exposes the contradictions and biases within them, and ends by showing the narrator evading or denying experiences that conflict with his ideology. According to Samson, Melville sees the concept of historical progress as the basis of these biases and evasions.In these five novels, Melville reveals the conflict between democratic, humanitarian, and individualistic principles, on the one hand, and the forces of racial superiority, religious bigotry, economic determinism, and political conservatism, on the other. Taken together, Samson asserts, these novels deconstruct the intellectual foundations of the form of historical narration endorsed by white patriarchal culture.Scholars and students of nineteenth-century American literature, specialists in the novel, and other readers of Melville will welcome Samson's provocative reinterpretation of these key works in American culture.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

I Introduction Genre, Ideology, and Melville's Narratives

2 Typee Perception and Preconception In Polynesia

3 Omoo Comparative Mythology of the Religious Elite

4 Redburn The Romance of Laissez-Faire

5 White-] acket The Cloak of the Millennium in the Ark of State

6 Israel Potter Revolutionary American Narrative

7 Metanarrative Conclusion Nature, Narrative, and Billy Budd, Sailor

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Aug 2024)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5017-4323-6

OCLC:

1036905021