The Errant Art of Moby-Dick

The Canon, the Cold War, and the Struggle for American Studies

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
Cover of the book The Errant Art of Moby-Dick by William V. Spanos, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William V. Spanos ISBN: 9780822379584
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: June 30, 1995
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: William V. Spanos
ISBN: 9780822379584
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: June 30, 1995
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In The Errant Art of Moby-Dick, one of America’s most distinguished critics reexamines Melville’s monumental novel and turns the occasion into a meditation on the history and implications of canon formation. In Moby-Dick—a work virtually ignored and discredited at the time of its publication—William V. Spanos uncovers a text remarkably suited as a foundation for a "New Americanist" critique of the ideology based on Puritan origins that was codified in the canon established by "Old Americanist" critics from F. O. Matthiessen to Lionel Trilling. But Spanos also shows, with the novel still as his focus, the limitations of this "New Americanist" discourse and its failure to escape the totalizing imperial perspective it finds in its predecessor.
Combining Heideggerian ontology with a sociopolitical perspective derived primarily from Foucault, the reading of Moby-Dick that forms the center of this book demonstrates that the traditional identification of Melville’s novel as a "romance" renders it complicitous in the discourse of the Cold War. At the same time, Spanos shows how New Americanist criticism overlooks the degree to which Moby-Dick anticipates not only America’s self-representation as the savior of the world against communism, but also the emergent postmodern and anti-imperial discourse deployed against such an image. Spanos’s critique reveals the extraordinary relevance of Melville’s novel as a post-Cold War text, foreshadowing not only the self-destructive end of the historical formation of the American cultural identity in the genocidal assault on Vietnam, but also the reactionary labeling of the current era as "the end of history."
This provocative and challenging study presents not only a new view of the development of literary history in the United States, but a devastating critique of the genealogy of ideology in the American cultural establishment.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In The Errant Art of Moby-Dick, one of America’s most distinguished critics reexamines Melville’s monumental novel and turns the occasion into a meditation on the history and implications of canon formation. In Moby-Dick—a work virtually ignored and discredited at the time of its publication—William V. Spanos uncovers a text remarkably suited as a foundation for a "New Americanist" critique of the ideology based on Puritan origins that was codified in the canon established by "Old Americanist" critics from F. O. Matthiessen to Lionel Trilling. But Spanos also shows, with the novel still as his focus, the limitations of this "New Americanist" discourse and its failure to escape the totalizing imperial perspective it finds in its predecessor.
Combining Heideggerian ontology with a sociopolitical perspective derived primarily from Foucault, the reading of Moby-Dick that forms the center of this book demonstrates that the traditional identification of Melville’s novel as a "romance" renders it complicitous in the discourse of the Cold War. At the same time, Spanos shows how New Americanist criticism overlooks the degree to which Moby-Dick anticipates not only America’s self-representation as the savior of the world against communism, but also the emergent postmodern and anti-imperial discourse deployed against such an image. Spanos’s critique reveals the extraordinary relevance of Melville’s novel as a post-Cold War text, foreshadowing not only the self-destructive end of the historical formation of the American cultural identity in the genocidal assault on Vietnam, but also the reactionary labeling of the current era as "the end of history."
This provocative and challenging study presents not only a new view of the development of literary history in the United States, but a devastating critique of the genealogy of ideology in the American cultural establishment.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Diploma of Whiteness by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Total Speech by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Pleasure Consuming Medicine by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Havana beyond the Ruins by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Expecting Pears from an Elm Tree by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Not Quite White by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Mourning the Nation by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book The Social Medicine Reader, Second Edition by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Rural Revolt in Mexico by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Black Nationalism in the New World by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Foucault's Discipline by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Virtual Americas by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Jugaad Time by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book Crash by William V. Spanos
Cover of the book A Coincidence of Desires by William V. Spanos
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy