Melville and Repose: The Rhetoric of Humor in the American RenaissanceOxford University Press, 1993 M10 28 - 336 pages John Bryant's book is a strong and significant argument for the centrality of the comic and repose in Melville's novels. The purpose of Melville and Repose is dual: to ground the uses of romantic humor in Melville in sensitive readings of contemporaneous European and American writings, and to offer a definitive account of the comic as the shaping force of Melville's narrative voice throughout the major phase of his literary career. Bryant argues that Melville fused a "rhetoric of geniality" and "picturesque sensibility" adopted from the British with a "rhetoric of deceit" borrowed from the American tall tale in order to create his own amiably cosmopolitan "rhetoric of aesthetic repose." Thorough research into American culture and recent Melville manuscript findings, an engaging style, and full, scholarly readings combine to make this historicist study a welcome addition to the libraries of Americanists and Melville scholars and enthusiasts. |
Other editions - View all
Melville and Repose: The Rhetoric of Humor in the American Renaissance John Bryant Limited preview - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetics of repose Ahab Ahab's allegory American amiable humor anxiety argues artist becomes benevolence Big Bear burlesque cannibalism Cetology chapter character comic debate confidence game Confidence-Man cosmopolitan creative critical culture doubt dramatic Drybone duped Dupin Duyckinck Edgar Allan Poe Emerson essay fact false Fayaway fiction finally genial misanthrope Goldsmith Goodman Hawthorne Hawthorne's Hazlitt heart Herman Melville hoax human humbug humorist instinct irony Irving Irving's Ishmael Jim's Kory-Kory Langstaff laughter liar Ligeia literary Marnoo Melville's metaphysical mind misanthrope Moby Moby Dick Moby-Dick moral Moredock narrative narrator native nature Noble Noble's Nolte novel philosophical picturesque Pip's Pitch play Poe's poetic political Polynesian Queequeg readers rhetoric of deceit rhetorical satire scene sense sensibility sexual Shaftesbury silence social Starbuck stranger Stubb sublime symbolic tall tale tense repose Toby Toby's Tommo transcendence transcendental truth Typee University Press voice Washington Irving whale words writing York