Literature

Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of Individualism

Paperback

Price:
$48.00/£40.00
ISBN:
Published:
Feb 21, 1991
1989
Pages:
264
Size:
5.5 x 8.5 in.
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Wai Chee Dimock approaches Herman Melville not as a timeless genius, but as a historical figure caught in the politics of an imperial nation and an “imperial self.” She challenges our customary view by demonstrating a link between the individualism that enabled Melville to write as a sovereign author and the nationalism that allowed America to grow into what Jefferson hoped would be an “empire for liberty.”