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The following essay discusses Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” (1856) as a text that engages architecture and writing as interrelated systems of signification. Fueled by a variety of historical developments, domestic architecture emerges as a powerful purveyor of meaning in the antebellum decades. Architecture, in this cultural context, is construed in analogy to writing (and, to some extent, vice versa), as creating houses-as-texts that tell stories about their inhabitants in terms of their individual, familial, and national identities. Thus conceived, domestic architecture is characteristically enlisted in the articulation and stabilization of hegemonic narratives of, e. g., gender and nationhood. Melville’s text invokes this cultural convention to cast the signifying function that architecture and writing perform as being vulnerable and in crisis. This crisis is narrated by an idiosyncratic narrator for whom the semiotic instability documented by his narrative resonates with the social and cultural vulnerability that he experiences—his authority as master of his house and family is challenged in the course of the tale, along with the structural integrity of his chimney with which he wants to symbolically reinforce his authority. I argue that this crisis of signification performs double work in the text. On the one hand, it serves to articulate the anxiety of mid-nineteenth-century cultural elites about what they perceive as a cultural decline. On the other hand, allegedly dysfunctional signification unfolds a critical potential, bringing to light things which ‘functional’ signification had worked to conceal and thereby unlocking hermetic narratives of self, family, and nation.

Diss. Univ. Köln, 2007.

The following essay discusses Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” (1856) as a text that engages architecture and writing as interrelated systems of signification. Fueled by a variety of historical developments, domestic architecture emerges as a powerful purveyor of meaning in the antebellum decades. Architecture, in this cultural context, is construed in analogy to writing (and, to some extent, vice versa), as creating houses-as-texts that tell stories about their inhabitants in terms of their individual, familial, and national identities. Thus conceived, domestic architecture is characteristically enlisted in the articulation and stabilization of hegemonic narratives of, e. g., gender and nationhood. Melville’s text invokes this cultural convention to cast the signifying function that architecture and writing perform as being vulnerable and in crisis. This crisis is narrated by an idiosyncratic narrator for whom the semiotic instability documented by his narrative resonates with the social and cultural vulnerability that he experiences—his authority as master of his house and family is challenged in the course of the tale, along with the structural integrity of his chimney with which he wants to symbolically reinforce his authority. I argue that this crisis of signification performs double work in the text. On the one hand, it serves to articulate the anxiety of mid-nineteenth-century cultural elites about what they perceive as a cultural decline. On the other hand, allegedly dysfunctional signification unfolds a critical potential, bringing to light things which ‘functional’ signification had worked to conceal and thereby unlocking hermetic narratives of self, family, and nation.

Embora haja um intervalo de mais de um século entre a publicação de Moby-Dick (1851) e a de Grande sertão: veredas (1956), o romance de João Guimarães Rosa apresenta, quer na forma, quer no conteúdo ou em seus respectivos desdobramentos alegóricos, muitos pontos em comum com o livro de Herman Melville. Produtos de literaturas periféricas de países ainda em processo de formação, essas obras são narrativas híbridas que não se encaixam na concepção original do romance moderno europeu (ou novel): ambas resgatam e transformam a épica e a tragédia, os chamados gêneros altos, para dar voz a um indivíduo que, à margem da sociedade de seu tempo, erra por um vasto espaço inóspito enquanto empenha-se em combates mortais. O propósito deste estudo é analisar, sob um ponto de vista comparativo, passos de Moby-Dick e Grande sertão: veredas, divididos de acordo com os gêneros literários que abarcam e, destacando semelhanças e diferenças, propor Moby-Dick, livro que Guimarães Rosa tinha em sua biblioteca pessoal, como uma das fontes inspiradoras do Grande sertão. / Although written more than a century apart, American Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick (1851) and Brazilian João Guimarães Rosas The Devil do Pay in the Backlands (1956) sharewhether in format, content, and even in their allegorical significancemany common traits. As products of peripheral literatures of countries undergoing a formative process, both are hybrid narratives that do not fit into the original concept of the European novel; their authors resort to, and transform, the so-called high genres, the epic and the tragedy, to give voice to an individual who, at the margin of the society of his time, wanders through a vast and hostile space whilst engaged in lethal combats. In telling his memories, that individual also outlines a survey of the society from which he is excluded, mixing his history with that of his country. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare extracts from Moby-Dick and The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, divided according to the literary genres that both used and transformed, and, by highlighting similarities and differences, identify Moby-Dick, a book that Rosa had in his personal library, as one of the literary sources for The Devil to Pay in the Backlands.

Neste estudo de análise e interpretação de Moby-Dick (1851), de Herman Melville (1819-1891), pretendemos formular e esclarecer questões relativas ao momento de definição do romance norte-americano, bem como à obra que se traduz como o esforço mais radical de um norte-americano na tentativa de, então, levar a forma romance ao estudo e reflexão sobre sua sociedade. Para tanto, recuperamos da leitura da obra os aspectos que mais fortemente tematizam tal intento: a crise ideológica de fins da década de 1840, quando os ideais revolucionários de igualdade da antiga república são finalmente confrontados com as consequências de sua integração no sistema capitalista mundializado questão central de Redburn (1849) e White-Jacket (1850), romances que preparam Moby-Dick e marcam as primeiras experiências de Melville como escritor social; o conceito de fronteira, problema de definição identitária norte-americana que abarca desde a ocupação da wilderness puritana no século XVII ao estabelecimento, à época de Melville, de uma política de Estado imperialista e, ademais, passa pela cristalização de perspectivas culturalmente particulares de propriedade e formação social de classe; e, finalmente, as noções de técnica e trabalho, diretamente implicadas na atividade baleeira e, de modo mais amplo, no avanço civilizatório norte-americano, e para quais pesam a consciência do valor social do trabalho livre e sua coexistência com a escravidão. É sob tais preocupações que contemplaremos, à luz da teoria crítica e da tradição crítica brasileira, as especificidades formais do romance, a saber, a apropriação estrutural do trágico em contraposição à épica, que define o percurso de Ahab, o capitão do Pequod, em sua caçada a Moby Dick, e a formação de um narrador reflexionante, o sobrevivente Ishmael, que retoma o passado da catástrofe para ferir o presente em que se perpetuam, no roldão do ingresso norte-americano na modernidade, as condições para sua reprodução. / Through an analytical and interpretative study of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick I intend to formulate and clarify the historical turning point of the American novel, specifically what is deemed the most radical effort of an American writer to bring a comprehensive study on society into novelistic form. In order to accomplish that, I reconsider some of the features of Moby-Dick that strongly appealed to the times. First the ideological crisis of the 1840s, when the equalitarian revolutionary ideals of the Independence were finally confronted by the consequences of the U.S. being fully compromised to the Industrial Revolution and the capitalistic worldwide system. This is a central issue in Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both novels where some major features of Moby-Dick are anticipated and firstly tested. Second, I scrutinize the concept of frontier -- a national identity issue that can be traced back to the Puritan 17th century errand into the wilderness that is strongly attached in the age of Melville to the ideological making of American imperialism. Besides, it also has had a major role in the crystallization of culturally specific perspectives on property and the establishment of social classes. Finally, I reconsider the notions of technique and labor, directly implied in the whaling industry and in a more general way in the marching of American civilization towards the West, which has had a strong impact on the understanding of the social significance of free labor and its coexistence with slavery. With those things under consideration, and through the surmises of the Critical Theory and the Brazilian tradition of social and literary criticism as well, it is my aim to shed light on some esthetical features of the novel, particularly on the tragic structure (as opposed to the epic) that defines the career of Pequods Captain Ahab and his obsessive chasing of Moby Dick, and the constitution of a self-reflexive narrator, the survivor Ishmael, who recalls the past of the catastrophe in order to attack the social reproduction of its conditions in the present.

Die Arbeit folgt dem Frontier-Mythos, einer Narration, die für die US-amerikanische Kultur von grundlegender Bedeutung ist. Der Gang von Ost nach West, den die Erschließung und Kultivierung des Kontinents beinhaltete, formierte auf verschiedenen Feldern eine mythologische Erzählung: in der Literatur- und Politikgeschichte und in einer Unterhaltungskultur, die um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts in Form von Groschenromanen oder Wild-West-Shows entstand. Die thematischen Hauptaspekte der Arbeit richten sich auf Geographie, Technologie und Verkehr. Buffalo Bill''s Wild-West-Show, die die Geschichte der frontier als Kampf zwischen Zivilisation und Natur, also modernen Amerikanern und indianischen Ureinwohnern, erzählt, stellt dazu den Cowboy, personifiziert durch den Show-Impresario William F. Cody, in den Mittelpunkt. Der selbst in Bewegung befindliche Showbetrieb korrespondiert dabei der Geschichte, die er erzählt. Mehrere Tourneen nach Europa leisten zudem einen Mythentransport zwischen Alter und Neuer Welt. Dabei geht es insbesondere um die Betonung einer Differenz zwischen zeitlicher Vertikale und räumlicher Horizontale: also zwischen der statisch organisierten Ordnung des europäischen Königshofes (Ahnentafel) und der dynamisch verfassten sowie auf Brüderlichkeit gegründeten amerikanischen Demokratie (moving frontier). Dieses Muster diskutiert die Arbeit anhand von Mark Twains Roman "A Yankee from Connecticut on King Arthur''s Court" und Herman Melvilles "Moby Dick". Letzterer belegt, wie die phantasmatische Energie des Frontier-Mythos auch dann noch insistiert, als der Kontinent erschlossen und der Pazifik erreicht ist: als Kreiselbewegung um den Globus selbst. Hier scheint bereits ein imperialistisches Muster auf, das die USA im Zentrum einer neuen Weltordnung sieht. "Als ob sich die Welt gerade in Amerika gerundet hätte", dieses titelgebende Diktum entstammt Deleuze/Guattaris "Mille Plateaux", das im Hinblick auf seine psychogeographischen Implikationen eine Rahmentheorie der Arbeit bildet. Wie sehr die grundlegende mythische Narration vom Wilden Westen weltpolitische Konsequenzen zeitigt, belegt exemplarisch der letzte Teil der Arbeit, der den Einsatz des Hollywoodregisseurs und Westernspezialisten John Ford in Diensten des Auslandsgeheimdienstes OSS während des Zweiten Weltkriegs zum Thema hat. / The study examines the frontier myth, a narration that is of fundamental importance for the culture of the United States. The path from East to West, which includes the conquering and cultivation of the continent, forms on various levels a mythological narration: in literary and political history as well as in the entertainment culture that arose in the middle of the nineteenth century through penny novels and Wild West shows. The study’s main thematic areas focus on geography, technology, and transportation. In Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which narrates the history of the frontier as the battle between civilization and nature (i.e., between modern Americans and Native Americans), the cowboy as personified by the show’s impresario William F. Cody takes center stage. American show business, which was literally underway, thus corresponded with the story/history it told. Several tours to Europe additionally succeeded in transporting the myth from the new to the old world. In particular, this myth-transportation emphasizes a difference between temporally vertical and spatially horizontal planes, i.e., between the static order of the European royal court (family tree) and the dynamically conceptualized American democracy founded on fraternity (moving frontier). The study discusses this model through Mark Twain’s novel A Yankee from Connecticut on King Arthur’s Court and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The latter novel evinces how the phantasmagoric energy of the frontier myth even persists when the continent has been conquered and the Pacific Ocean reached – persists as the circular movement around the globe itself. An imperial model thus comes to light that sees the USA at the center of a new world order. The title of this study – “As if the world first became round in America” – comes from Deleuze and Guattari’s Mille Plateaux and its psycho-global implications offers a guiding theory for the work. The extent to which the foundational, mythical narration of the Wild West bears world-political consequences is demonstrated in the last part of the study, which investigates the deployment of the Hollywood director and Western specialist John Ford in the foreign secret service (OSS) during the Second World War.

Embora haja um intervalo de mais de um século entre a publicação de Moby-Dick (1851) e a de Grande sertão: veredas (1956), o romance de João Guimarães Rosa apresenta, quer na forma, quer no conteúdo ou em seus respectivos desdobramentos alegóricos, muitos pontos em comum com o livro de Herman Melville. Produtos de literaturas periféricas de países ainda em processo de formação, essas obras são narrativas híbridas que não se encaixam na concepção original do romance moderno europeu (ou novel): ambas resgatam e transformam a épica e a tragédia, os chamados gêneros altos, para dar voz a um indivíduo que, à margem da sociedade de seu tempo, erra por um vasto espaço inóspito enquanto empenha-se em combates mortais. O propósito deste estudo é analisar, sob um ponto de vista comparativo, passos de Moby-Dick e Grande sertão: veredas, divididos de acordo com os gêneros literários que abarcam e, destacando semelhanças e diferenças, propor Moby-Dick, livro que Guimarães Rosa tinha em sua biblioteca pessoal, como uma das fontes inspiradoras do Grande sertão. / Although written more than a century apart, American Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick (1851) and Brazilian João Guimarães Rosas The Devil do Pay in the Backlands (1956) sharewhether in format, content, and even in their allegorical significancemany common traits. As products of peripheral literatures of countries undergoing a formative process, both are hybrid narratives that do not fit into the original concept of the European novel; their authors resort to, and transform, the so-called high genres, the epic and the tragedy, to give voice to an individual who, at the margin of the society of his time, wanders through a vast and hostile space whilst engaged in lethal combats. In telling his memories, that individual also outlines a survey of the society from which he is excluded, mixing his history with that of his country. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare extracts from Moby-Dick and The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, divided according to the literary genres that both used and transformed, and, by highlighting similarities and differences, identify Moby-Dick, a book that Rosa had in his personal library, as one of the literary sources for The Devil to Pay in the Backlands.

Neste estudo de análise e interpretação de Moby-Dick (1851), de Herman Melville (1819-1891), pretendemos formular e esclarecer questões relativas ao momento de definição do romance norte-americano, bem como à obra que se traduz como o esforço mais radical de um norte-americano na tentativa de, então, levar a forma romance ao estudo e reflexão sobre sua sociedade. Para tanto, recuperamos da leitura da obra os aspectos que mais fortemente tematizam tal intento: a crise ideológica de fins da década de 1840, quando os ideais revolucionários de igualdade da antiga república são finalmente confrontados com as consequências de sua integração no sistema capitalista mundializado questão central de Redburn (1849) e White-Jacket (1850), romances que preparam Moby-Dick e marcam as primeiras experiências de Melville como escritor social; o conceito de fronteira, problema de definição identitária norte-americana que abarca desde a ocupação da wilderness puritana no século XVII ao estabelecimento, à época de Melville, de uma política de Estado imperialista e, ademais, passa pela cristalização de perspectivas culturalmente particulares de propriedade e formação social de classe; e, finalmente, as noções de técnica e trabalho, diretamente implicadas na atividade baleeira e, de modo mais amplo, no avanço civilizatório norte-americano, e para quais pesam a consciência do valor social do trabalho livre e sua coexistência com a escravidão. É sob tais preocupações que contemplaremos, à luz da teoria crítica e da tradição crítica brasileira, as especificidades formais do romance, a saber, a apropriação estrutural do trágico em contraposição à épica, que define o percurso de Ahab, o capitão do Pequod, em sua caçada a Moby Dick, e a formação de um narrador reflexionante, o sobrevivente Ishmael, que retoma o passado da catástrofe para ferir o presente em que se perpetuam, no roldão do ingresso norte-americano na modernidade, as condições para sua reprodução. / Through an analytical and interpretative study of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick I intend to formulate and clarify the historical turning point of the American novel, specifically what is deemed the most radical effort of an American writer to bring a comprehensive study on society into novelistic form. In order to accomplish that, I reconsider some of the features of Moby-Dick that strongly appealed to the times. First the ideological crisis of the 1840s, when the equalitarian revolutionary ideals of the Independence were finally confronted by the consequences of the U.S. being fully compromised to the Industrial Revolution and the capitalistic worldwide system. This is a central issue in Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both novels where some major features of Moby-Dick are anticipated and firstly tested. Second, I scrutinize the concept of frontier -- a national identity issue that can be traced back to the Puritan 17th century errand into the wilderness that is strongly attached in the age of Melville to the ideological making of American imperialism. Besides, it also has had a major role in the crystallization of culturally specific perspectives on property and the establishment of social classes. Finally, I reconsider the notions of technique and labor, directly implied in the whaling industry and in a more general way in the marching of American civilization towards the West, which has had a strong impact on the understanding of the social significance of free labor and its coexistence with slavery. With those things under consideration, and through the surmises of the Critical Theory and the Brazilian tradition of social and literary criticism as well, it is my aim to shed light on some esthetical features of the novel, particularly on the tragic structure (as opposed to the epic) that defines the career of Pequods Captain Ahab and his obsessive chasing of Moby Dick, and the constitution of a self-reflexive narrator, the survivor Ishmael, who recalls the past of the catastrophe in order to attack the social reproduction of its conditions in the present.

This essay examines three of Herman Melville’s shorter fictions: Bartleby, Benito Cereno and Billy Budd. An analysis and comparison is made of the forces of power relations and resistance between the main characters in the three stories. Foucault’s theories of power are used as a basis for the analysis. Apparent power structures such as law and military hierarchy are analysed, but the focus is on more subtle relations based on language, knowledge, conformity with norms, silence, capitalism and position. It is argued that, apart from the apparent power structures, one needs to consider the more subtle power relations and acts of resistance for an understanding in the shifts of power positions. The study examines how the resisting oppressed party in each of the three works of fiction ends up dead, and that on a first reading resistance may seem futile. A further examination of the seemingly re-established conventional order, however, reveals shifts in power positions, shifts that indicate instability in the norms of society. It is argued that positions of power are to some extent reversed in the studied works of fiction, where the dominant party ends up suffering.