Civilizational critique in Herman Melville's Typee, Omoo, and Mardi

Publication type:
Journal article
Metadata:
Autoren
Sammlungen
  • metadata
ISSN
0340-2827
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
2
Zeitschrift
Amerikastudien : AmST = American studies
Schlüsselwörter
  • 810 Englische Literatur Amerikas
  • 810 American literature in English
Sprache
eng
Paginierung
Seiten: 207 - 225
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2003
Herausgeber
Winter
Datum der Datenerfassung
2020
Datum, an dem der Datensatz öffentlich gemacht wurde
2020
Zugang
Public
Titel
Civilizational critique in Herman Melville's Typee, Omoo, and Mardi
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
48

Data source: METADATA.UB

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Abstract
This paper proposes to read Herman Melville's South Sea novels pee, Mardi, and Omoo through the concept of 'ethnic ventriloquism': the white American subject critiques his own civilization by assuming an ethnic subject position. This ethnic posing stands in curious contrast to native agency itself: the Other cannot speak because the white beachcomber has already spoken for him. A curious relationship emerges between this well-meaning advocacy of ethnic concerns and the presence of the actual Other who might set out to jeopardize or repudiate this advocacy. Imperialist critique is at once self-critique: the Other vanishes in the margins of white self-introspection. This self-introspection, however, can be deconstructed through the idea of alternative readers of the civilization critique advanced in Typee, Omoo, and Mardi. The notion of alternative readers returns the project of ethnic ventriloquism to its sender. Once the Other chooses to speak in his own voice, there may be nothing left for the beachcomber but to fall silent.
Autoren
ISSN
0340-2827
Ausgabe der Veröffentlichung
2
Zeitschrift
Amerikastudien/American Studies
Schlüsselwörter
  • American literature
  • 1800-1899
  • Melville, Herman(1819-1891)
  • 0000 0001 2125 135X
  • novel
  • white novelists
  • <i>Typee</i>(1846)
  • <i>Omoo</i>(1847)
  • <i>Mardi</i>(1849)
  • authorial voice
  • ethnicity
Sprache
English
Paginierung
207 - 225
Datum der Veröffentlichung
2003
Herausgeber
Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH
Titel
Civilizational Critique in Herman Melville's <i>Typee, Omoo,</i> and <i>Mardi</i>
Ausgabe der Zeitschrift
48

Data source: MLA

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