The urban Melville.
Item
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Title
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The urban Melville.
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Identifier
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AAI9618098
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identifier
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9618098
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Creator
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Rudden, Patricia Spence.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joan Richardson
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | Biography
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Abstract
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Although Herman Melville has generally not been regarded as an urban writer, many of his works feature urban settings and other urban elements, and, in fact, he was born and spent most of his life in New York. This dissertation examines his various uses of these urban settings and elements in light of his lifelong relationship to New York.;Melville's uses of cities occur under four main aspects. First are the signs of the formative influence of New York, revealed in his use of urban metaphors to explain non-urban phenomena, and in the indications of New York speech patterns in his spelling. The second aspect is the use of cities as settings for stories of exile and failure. In most of these works, the city is New York. The third aspect is the function of Jerusalem, both as urban archetype and as the actual city Melville encountered in the 1850s and used twenty years later in Clarel as a setting for exploration of his religious conflicts. Last are the literal and figurative cities offstage and offshore, especially urban aspects of shipboard life.;Melville's lifelong involvement with New York divides into five major phases. First was his New York childhood, and second his time as a New Yorker abroad, sailing to Livepool in his early adulthood and making extended trips in the midwest and the Pacific. The third phase is his period as New York author. This ended in 1850 with his move to Pittsfield, when he became a New Yorker in voluntary self-exile. During this phase he wrote most of his urban works. The last phase began with his final move back to Manhattan, when he wrote of cities, but never again of New York. Each of these periods influences Melville's use of cities.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
