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'Schooled by the Inhuman Sea': Maritime Imagination and the Discourses of Emancipation in Herman Melville’s Clarel
Simonetti, Paolo
2015
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to read Clarel (1876) as Melville’s most mature reflection on issues related to democracy and emancipation in the United States. Clarel’s situation at the end of the poem reflects that of the ex-slaves after emancipation. Most importantly, I argue that Melville significantly structured Clarel as a sailor’s narrative, adapting the popular devices of sea-writing to versification in order to bridge the gap between his early fiction and his later poetry. Finally, I propose to read Clarel as the author’s poetic pilgrimage to offset the excessive autobiographical impulse of his early fiction in order to gain artistic, as well as personal, emancipation.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Paolo Simonetti "'Schooled by the Inhuman Sea': Maritime Imagination and the Discourses of Emancipation in Herman Melville’s Clarel" in: Leonardo Buonomo and Elisabetta Vezzosi (edited by) "Discourses of Emancipation and the Boundaries of Freedom. Selected Papers from the 22nd AISNA Biennial International Conference", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2015, pp.195-202
Languages
en
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