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From 1929 to the latest issue, American Literature has been the foremost journal expressing the findings of those who study our national literature. The journal has published the best work of literary historians, critics, and bibliographers, ranging from the founders of the discipline to the best current critics and researchers. The longevity of this excellence lends a special distinction to the articles in American Literature.
Presented in order of their first appearance, the articles in each volume constitute a revealing record of developing insights and important shifts of critical emphasis. Each article has opened a fresh line of inquiry, established a fresh perspective on a familiar topic, or settled a question that engaged the interest of experts.
List of contents
Series Introduction vii
The Anatomy of Melville's Fame (1931) / O.W. Riegel 1
Herman Melville's "I and My Chimney" (1941) / Merton M. Sealts 10
Meville's "Sociality" (1945) / R. E. Watters 23
Melville's "The
Town-Ho's Story" (1949) / Sherman Paul 40
Melville's " 'Soiled' Fish of the Sea" (1949) / John W. Nichol 50
Melville on Homer (1950) / R. W. B. Lewis 52
Some Notes on the Structure of
The Confidence-Man (1957) / John G. Cawelti 62
Hawthorne, Melville, and "Blackness" (1965) / Hubert H. Hoeltje 73
The Domestic Adventures in Melville's Tales (1965) / Judith Slater 84
Redburn and the Faillure of Mythic Criticism (1967) / James Schroeter 97
"Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!" and Some Legends in Melville Scholarship (1968) / Sidney P. Moss 116
Melville and the Negro: From
Typee to "Benito Cereno" (1969) / Eleanor E. Simpson 135
Melville's Bachelors and Maids: Interpretation Through Symbol and Metaphor (1969) / Beryl Rowland 155
Melville and the Theme of Timonism: From
Pierre to
The Confidence-Man (1972) / Charles N. Watson, Jr. 172
Vera's Use of the "Forms": Means and Ends in
Billy Budd (1975) / Christopher W. Sten 188
The Composition of
Moby-Dick (1975) / James Barbour 203
Form as Vision in Herman Melville's
Clarel (1979) / Bryan C. Short 221
Moby-Dick: The Transformation of the Faustian Ethos (1979) / Gustaaf Van Cromphout 238
Melville's Comic Debate: Geniality and the Aesthetics of Repose (1983) / John Bryant 254
Index 275
About the author
Louis J. Budd and Edwin H. Cady, eds.
