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.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / LâÃcriture de Melville, mÃme aprÃs tout le temps passà et avec diverses interprÃtations, alaissà inquiets les lecteurs et la critique. Pour cela, afin de prÃserver ce qui la permet survivre, nous nâavons pas comme but Ãpuiser les visions possibles de lâoeuvre, bien au contraire, on prÃtend contribuer à lâoverture des possibilitÃs et des vÃritÃs à propos du dit e du non-dit prÃsent chez lâoeuvre de lâÃcrivain amÃricain, en ce que concerne les livres Bartleby, lâÃcrivain, Benito Cereno et Billy Budd. Dans notre Ãtude, le but central est penser les trois Ãcritures de Herman Melville à partir de leurs personnages-titres, mais qui ne sont pas les narrateurs de lâhistoire, de faÃon à perdre le pouvoir de dominer le destin de lâÃcriture. De telle faÃon, les personnages donnent plutÃt des indices que des paroles concrÃtes et sont entre le dit et le non-dit / A escrita de Melville, mesmo com o passar do tempo e apesar de tantas anÃlises de suas obras, ainda nÃo deixou de inquietar leitores e estudiosos. Por essa razÃo, para preservar o que na obra literÃria faz dela sobrevivente, o objetivo de nosso estudo nÃo à de forma alguma esgotar as visÃes que as obras permitem; pelo contrÃrio, pretendemos contribuir para a abertura de mais possibilidades de questionamentos e de verdades acerca do dito e do nÃo-dito intrÃnseco Ãs obras do escritor estadunidense, no que concerne ao estudo de Bartleby, o escrivÃo, Benito Cereno e Billy Budd. Objetivamos em nossa dissertaÃÃo investigar na escrita de Herman Melville os aspectos relacionados Ãs personagens, as quais possuem destaque no tÃtulo de cada obra, mas nunca sÃo narradoras de sua histÃria, de modo que sÃo incapazes de ter domÃnio sobre ela. Nesse sentido, as personagens mais insinuam do que realmente dizem, estÃo no limite entre o dito e o nÃo-dito.

This dissertation interprets how two antebellum American works of fiction, Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno and Martin R. Delany’s Blake, represent the relationship between conjuring and resistance to oppression. It is unclear how we should conceive of this relationship: on the one hand, historical slave conspiracies and revolts in the Atlantic world demonstrated the unequivocal power of conjuring for assembling collectives; on the other hand, many slaves who turned to conjuring to ease their suffering later dismissed the practice as nonsense in their autobiographies. My close-readings of these two texts are supported by a wide-range of historical and cultural materials, including the vast literature on conjuring, the Peruvian discourse on the saya y manto, and the discourse on fetishism. I conclude that acts of conjuring drive plot and explain a character’s actions or inactions under circumstances in which resistance to oppression involves obtaining or preserving freedom for presently or formerly enslaved people. In addition, this dissertation provides a method for reading conjuring in Benito Cereno and interprets a form of conjuring in Blake that readers have neglected.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation analyzes the critique of charity and philanthropy implicit in Melville’s short fiction written for periodicals between 1853 and 1856. Melville utilized narrative and tone to conceal his opposition to prevailing ideologies and manipulated narrative structures to make the reader complicit in the problematic assumptions of a market economy. Integrating close readings with critical theory, I establish that Melville was challenging the new rhetoric of philanthropy that created a moral identity for wealthy men in industrial capitalist society. Through his short fiction, Melville exposed self-serving conduct and rationalizations when they masqueraded as civic-minded responses to the needs of the community. Melville was joining a public conversation about philanthropy and civic leadership in an American society that, in its pursuit of private wealth, he believed was losing touch with the democratic and civic ideals on which the nation had been founded. Melville’s objection was not with charitable giving; rather, he objected to its use as a diversion from honest reflection on one’s responsibilities to others.