Melville's Folk Roots

Melville's Folk Roots
Author: Kevin J. Hayes
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 162
Release: 1999
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780873386258

Herman Melville's reputation as a great writer has gradually evolved throughout the 20th century. Tempered by studies that emphasize the Western literary tradition, literary appreciation for Melville's use of folklore has been slow in developing. This study focuses on Melville's immersion with and borrowing from oral traditions: both music and narrative; tall-tale humour; nautical folklore; superstition; and legend. The book also acts as a general introduction to Melville's work.

The Golden Age of the Classics in America

The Golden Age of the Classics in America
Author: Carl J. Richard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2009-03-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780674032644

Richard explores the enshrinement of the classics in American antebellum culture. For the first time, knowledge of the classics extended beyond aristocratic males to the middle class, women, African Americans, and frontier settlers, but the Civil War led to a radical alteration of the educational system that steadily eroded their preeminence.

Melville "Among the Nations"

Melville
Author: Sanford E. Marovitz
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 630
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780873386968

Early in July 1997, scholars from around the world met in Volos, Greece, to discuss the work of American writer and international traveler Herman Melville. Offering insights into Melville the man and Melville the artist, the papers presented at this conference reflected a variety of interdisciplinary, international, and intergenerational perspectives. With the participation of esteemed Melville critics and many young scholars gaining recognition for their innovative and incisive work in the area of Melville studies, this unique conference afforded all who attended an overview of current approaches to Melville and detailed thermatic examinations of his specific works and themes.

Classical Mythology

Classical Mythology
Author: Mark P. O. Morford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2001-11-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9780195218770

Morford and Lenardon's best-selling introduction to classical mythology is a comprehensive survey focusing on the literary tradition of Greek and Roman mythology. It offers extensive translations of original mythological sources as well as comparative and interpretive approaches to the myths. In this package, Classical Mythology, 6/e is bundled with the Oxford World's Classic Metamorphoses. Metamorphoses--the best-known poem by one of the wittiest poets of classical antiquity--takes as its theme change and transformation, as illustrated by Greco-Roman myth and legend. Melville's new translation reproduces the grace and fluency of Ovid's style, and its modern idiom offers a fresh understanding of Ovid's unique and elusive vision of reality.

Melville's Allusions to Religion

Melville's Allusions to Religion
Author: Gail H. Coffler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2004-10-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0313072701

The long-awaited companion volume to Gail Coffler's first book, Melville's Classical Allusions, has finally arrived. In this new volume, thousands of references to Judeo-Christian and other religions in Herman Melville's books are references. The index includes references to all of his novels, short stories, poetry, lectures, letters, and journals. With it, one can trace a given allusion through the entire canon, or research any individual work, such as Moby Dick, Billy Budd, or Benito Cereno from beginning to end. Readers interested in Melville's writing and philosophy as well as researchers of 19th century literature, culture, and religion will appreciate this book. This volume begins with a master index that lists all religious allusions and their location throughout Melville's works. Next, there is an alphabetical index and a sequential index of all allusions in each of the individual volumes. The sequential index lists allusions in their chronological page order and identifies many bible passages alluded to or quoted by Melville, citing the bible book, chapter, and verse. A supplementary index alphabetically lists the allusions in Melville's Correspondence and Journals. The book concludes with a glossary briefly explaining all allusions and gives cross references to related entries.

Inscrutable Malice

Inscrutable Malice
Author: Jonathan A. Cook
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2012-12-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1609090780

In Inscrutable Malice, Jonathan A. Cook expertly illuminates Melville's abiding preoccupation with the problem of evil and the dominant role of the Bible in shaping his best-known novel. Drawing on recent research in the fields of biblical studies, the history of religion, and comparative mythology, Cook provides a new interpretation of Moby-Dick that places Melville's creative adaptation of the Bible at the center of the work. Cook identifies two ongoing concerns in the narrative in relation to their key biblical sources: the attempt to reconcile the goodness of God with the existence of evil, as dramatized in the book of Job; and the discourse of the Christian end-times involving the final destruction of evil, as found in the apocalyptic books and eschatological passages of the Old and New Testaments. With his detailed reading of Moby-Dick in relation to its most important source text, Cook greatly expands the reader's understanding of the moral, religious, and mythical dimensions of the novel. Both accessible and erudite, Inscrutable Malice will appeal to scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Melville's classic whaling narrative.