Download or read book Why Moralize upon It written by Brian Danoff and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-22 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously declared that “the greatest duty of a statesman is to educate." The central claim of Why Moralize upon It? is that it is not only statesmen who can help educate a democratic citizenry, but also novelists and filmmakers. This book’s title is drawn from Melville’s “Benito Cereno.” Near the end of this novella, after he has put down a rebellion of enslaved Africans, the American captain Amasa Delano claims that “the past is passed,” and thus there is no need to “moralize upon it.”Melville suggests, though, that it is crucial for Americans to critically examine American history and American political institutions; otherwise, they may be blind to the existence of injustices which will ultimately undermine democracy. Danoff argues that novels and films play a crucial role in helping democratic citizens undertake the kind of moral reflection that they must engage in if they are to not only preserve their political community, but also render it “forever worthy of the saving,” as Abraham Lincoln put it. Contending that some of the most profound American thinking about the nature of democratic leadership has come through novels more so than treatises or essays, Danoff argues that the works of fiction examined in this book explore difficult questions rather than provide any easy answers. Because these works have an ambiguous, nuanced, and tragic outlook, they teach citizen-readers how to think through the moral complexities of the political issues on which they must render judgment. The rich and multi-faceted democratic education that citizens glean from outstanding works of fiction is particularly necessary at a time when the media-landscape is often dominated by superficial “viral moments,” “sound-bites,” and social media posts. Moreover, given that we today live in an era of sharp political polarization in which partisans often demonize one another, it is especially valuable for Americans to be exposed to literary and cinematic works of art which remind us that none of us have a monopoly on virtue, and that all of us inhabit what Melville called “the common continent of men.”
Download or read book Benito Cereno Bartleby written by Herman Melville and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-12 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bartleby, the Scrivener" – An elderly Manhattan lawyer with a comfortable business in legal documents has two scriveners employed, but an increase in business leads him to advertise for a third. He hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the irascible temperaments of the other two. An office boy nicknamed Ginger Nut completes the staff. At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work, but one day, when asked to help proofread a document, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to." "Benito Cereno" is a tale about the revolt on a Spanish slave ship captained by Don Benito Cereno. In 1799 off the coast of Chile, Captain Amasa Delano of the American sealer and merchant ship Bachelor's Delight visits the San Dominick, a Spanish slave ship apparently in distress. After learning from its captain Benito Cereno that a storm has taken many crewmembers and provisions, Delano offers to help out. He notices that Cereno acts awkwardly passive for a captain and the slaves display remarkably inappropriate behavior, and though this piques his suspicion he ultimately decides he is being paranoid. When he leaves the San Dominick and captain Cereno jumps after him, he finally discovers that the slaves have taken command of the ship, and forced the surviving crew to act as usual.
Download or read book The Amistad Revolt written by Iyunolu Folayan Osagie and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From journalism and lectures to drama, visual art, and the Spielberg film, this study ranges across the varied cultural reactions--in America and Sierra Leone--engendered by the 1839 Amistad slave ship revolt. Iyunolu Folayan Osagie is a native of Sierra Leone, from where the Amistad's cargo of slaves originated. She digs deeply into the Amistad story to show the historical and contemporary relevance of the incident and its subsequent trials. At the same time, she shows how the incident has contributed to the construction of national and cultural identity both in Africa and the African diasporo in America--though in intriguingly different ways. This pioneering work of comparative African and American cultural criticism shows how creative arts have both confirmed and fostered the significance of the Amistad revolt in contemporary racial discourse and in the collective memories of both countries.
Download or read book Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville Illustrated written by Herman Melville and published by Delphi Classics. This book was released on 2013-11-17 with total page 5081 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Herman Melville is a giant of American literature, whose novels are hailed as literary masterpieces. This eBook offers readers the complete works for the first time in digital print, as well as an array of bonus features. (Current version: 1) * illustrated with many images relating to Melville’s life and works * annotated with concise introductions to the novels and other works * ALL the novels, with separate contents tables * MOBY-DICK and other works are presented with their original illustrations * images of how the novels first appeared, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * the complete short story collections * rare short stories like DANIEL ORME – first time in digital print * the complete poetry collections * the scarce poetry collection WEEDS AND WILDINGS, which Melville wrote for his wife – first time in digital print * separate CHRONOLOGICAL and ALPHABETICAL contents tables for the poetry – find that special poem easily! * includes Melville’s complete essays, available nowhere else * bonus collection of letters by Melville – explore the writer’s personal correspondence * boasts a special criticism section, with essays by writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf examining Melville’s contribution to literature * features Raymond Weaver’s seminal biography on Melville, which sparked the great revival in the author * scholarly ordering of texts in chronological order and literary genres, allowing easy navigation around Melville’s immense oeuvre Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Novels Typee Omoo Mardi Redburn White-Jacket Moby-Dick Pierre Israel Potter The Confidence-Man Billy Budd, Sailor The Short Story Collections The Piazza Tales The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces The Short Stories List of the Short Stories The Poetry Collections Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land John Marr and Other Sailors Timoleon and Other Ventures Weeds and Wildings, with a Rose or Two Uncollected Poems The Poems List of Poems in Chronological Order List of Poems in Alphabetical Order The Essays Fragments from a Writing Desk Etchings of a Whaling Cruise Review Authentic Anecdotes of ‘Old Zack’ Mr Parkman’s Tour Cooper’s New Novel A Thought on Book-Binding Hawthorne and His Mosses The Letters Some Personal Letters of Herman Melville by Meade Minnigerode The Criticism The Best Sea-Story Ever Written by Archibald Macmechan Herman Melville’s Moby Dick by D. H. Lawrence Herman Melville’s Typee and Omoo by D. H. Lawrence Herman Melville by Virginia Woolf The Biography Herman Melville: Man, Mariner and Mystic by Raymond Weaver
Download or read book Herman Melville and the American Calling written by William V. Spanos and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2008-08-21 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that Herman Melville’s later work anticipates the resurgence of an American exceptionalist ethos underpinning the U.S.-led global “war on terror.”
Download or read book HERMAN MELVILLE Ultimate Collection 50 Adventure Classics Philosophical Novels Short Stories written by Herman Melville and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-03-17 with total page 5529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "HERMAN MELVILLE Ultimate Collection" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer and a poet. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. Novels: Typee Omoo Mardi Redburn White-Jacket Moby-Dick Pierre Israel Potter The Confidence-Man Billy Budd, Sailor Short Stories: The Piazza Bartleby, the Scrivener Benito Cereno The Lightning-Rod Man The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles The Bell-Tower The Apple-Tree Table Jimmy Rose I and My Chimney The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! The Fiddler Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs The Happy Failure The 'Gees The Two Temples Daniel Orme Poetry Collections: Clarel – A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War Timoleon and Other Ventures in Minor Verse Weeds and Wildings, With a Rose or Two John Marr and Other Sailors Bridgeroom Dick Tom Deadlight Jack Roy The Haglets The Aeolian Harp To the Master of the "Meteor" Far off Shore The Man-of-War Hawk The Figure-Head The Good Craft "Snow Bird" Old Counsel The Tuft of Kelp The Maldive Shark To Ned Crossing the Tropics The Berg The Enviable Isles Pebbles Poems from Mardi We Fish Invocation Dirge Marlena Pipe Song Song of Yoomy Gold The Land of Love Other Poems Essays: Fragments from a Writing Desk Etchings of a Whaling Cruise Authentic Anecdotes of "Old Zack" Mr. Parkman's Tour Cooper's New Novel A Thought on Book-Binding Hawthorne and His Mosses Criticism: Herman Melville by Virginia Woolf Herman Melville's Moby Dick by D.H. Lawrence Herman Melville's Typee and Omoo by D.H. Lawrence
Download or read book The Tales of the Sea written by Herman Melville and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 3267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique and meticulously edited collection of sea adventure novels includes: White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War is a memoir of a year spent on a U.S. man-of-war, the 54-gun frigate USS "Neversink" in a voyage from Chile to Norfolk._x000D_ Redburn: His First Voyage recounts the adventures of a refined young man among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool._x000D_ Mardi, and a Voyage Thither details the traveling of an American sailor who abandons his whaling vessel to explore the South Pacific._x000D_ Moby-Dick; or, The Whale – Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of captain Ahab for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale that on the previous whaling voyage bit off his leg at the knee._x000D_ Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile – After hearing a rousing speech by General George Washington, Israel Potter leaves his plow to fight in the American Revolution._x000D_ Billy Budd, Sailor: (An Inside Narrative) – A tale about seaman impressed into service in the year 1797, when the British Royal Navy was reeling from two major mutinies._x000D_ Benito Cereno is a story about the revolt on a Spanish slavery ship captained by Don Benito Cereno._x000D_ The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles consists of ten "Sketches" on the Galápagos Islands._x000D_ Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life describes the narrator's four month stay on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. It is a story of capture, escape and romance._x000D_ Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas – After leaving the island of Nuku Hiva, the narrator ships aboard a whaling vessel that makes its way to Tahiti._x000D_ Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change.
Download or read book Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World written by Sharon Schuman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World argues that our most cherished ideas about freedom—being left alone to do as we please, or uncovering the truth—have failed us. They promote the polarized thinking that blights our world. Rooted in literature, political theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of language, this book introduces a new concept: dialogic freedom. This concept combats polarization by inspiring us to feel freer the better able we are to see from the perspectives of others. To say that freedom is dialogic is to apply to it an idea about language. If you and I are talking, I anticipate from you a response that could be friendly, hostile, or indifferent, and this awareness helps determine what I say. If you look bored or give me a blank stare, I might not say anything at all. In this sense language is dialogic. The same can be said of freedom. Our decisions take into account the voices of others to which we feel answerable, and these voices coauthor our choices. In today’s polarized world, prevailing concepts of freedom as autonomy and enlightenment have encouraged us to take refuge in echo chambers among the like-minded. Whether the subject is abortion, terrorism, or gun control, these concepts encourage us to shut out the voices of those who dare to disagree. We need a new way to think about freedom. Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World presents riveting moments of choice from Homer’s Iliad, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Melville’s “Benito Cereno,”Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” and Morrison’s Beloved, in order to advocate reading for and with dialogic freedom. It ends with a practical application to the debate about abortion and an invitation to rethink other polarizing issues.
Download or read book HERMAN MELVILLE Premium Collection 24 Novels Novellas With 140 Poems Essays written by Herman Melville and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-03-17 with total page 5188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: “HERMAN MELVILLE – Premium Collection: 24 Novels & Novellas; With 140+ Poems & Essays” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Herman Melville is one of the greatest American novelists, short story writer and a poet. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. Content: Introduction Herman Melville by Virginia Woolf Novels Typee Omoo Mardi Redburn White-Jacket Moby-Dick Pierre Israel Potter The Confidence-Man Short Stories The Piazza Tales: The Piazza Bartleby, the Scrivener Benito Cereno The Lightning-Rod Man The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles The Bell-Tower The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches: The Apple-Tree Table Jimmy Rose I and My Chimney The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! The Fiddler Poor Man’s Pudding and Rich Man’s Crumbs The Happy Failure The 'Gees Poetry Collections: Clarel – A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War Timoleon and Other Ventures in Minor Verse John Marr and Other Sailors: Bridgeroom Dick Tom Deadlight Jack Roy The Haglets The Aeolian Harp To the Master of the "Meteor" Far off Shore The Man-of-War Hawk The Figure-Head The Good Craft "Snow Bird" Old Counsel The Tuft of Kelp The Maldive Shark To Ned Crossing the Tropics The Berg The Enviable Isles Pebbles Poems from Mardi: We Fish Invocation Dirge Marlena Pipe Song Song of Yoomy Gold The Land of Love Essays Fragments from a Writing Desk Etchings of a Whaling Cruise Authentic Anecdotes of “Old Zack” Mr. Parkman’s Tour Cooper’s New Novel A Thought on Book-Binding Hawthorne and His Mosses
Download or read book F O Matthiessen and the Politics of Criticism written by William E. Cain and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: F.O. Matthiessen remains one of America's leading twentieth-century critics in part because the problems he and his contemporaries struggled with remain ours today. William E. Cain studies Matthiessen's career with careful attention to biographical, institutional, literary, and political contexts. He considers Matthiessen's many reviews and essays on literature and deals sympathetically, but critically, with Matthiessen's attitudes toward the Cold War as revealed in his memoir, From the Heart of Europe. Cain draws connections between Matthiessen's criticism and the influence of significant political movements like the Popular Front of the 1930s, the Progressive Party, and Henry Wallace's campaign for the presidency in 1948. Analyzing specific texts by Thoreau, James, Dreiser, and Melville, he confronts the difficult and highly contested relationships between literary criticism and politics, scholarship and the public sphere, pedagogy and social activism. He suggests that critics need to acknowledge the primacy of their political commitments and should proceed to teach and write accordingly. This argument, certain to prove a controversial one, will spark extensive debate and discussion about the theory and practice of intellectual work. All students and scholars of English and American literature, American studies, black studies, and American history will welcome this original and stimulating study, the first to treat Matthiessen in fully detailed social, historical, and political contexts. .
Download or read book American Impersonal Essays with Sharon Cameron written by Branka Arsic and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Impersonal brings together some of the most influential scholars now working in American literature to explore the impact of one of America's leading literary critics: Sharon Cameron. It engages directly with certain arguments that Cameron has articulated throughout her career, most notably her late work on the question of impersonality. In doing so, it provides responses to questions fundamental to literary criticism, such as: the nature of personhood; the logic of subjectivity in depersonalized communities; the question of the human within the problematic of the impersonal; how impersonality relates to the “posthuman.” Additionally, some essays respond to the current “aesthetic turn” in literary scholarship and engage with the lyric, currently much debated, as well as the larger questions of poetics and the logic of genre. These crucial issues are addressed from the perspective of an American literary and philosophical tradition, and progress chronologically, starting from Melville and Emerson and moving via Dickinson, Thoreau and Hawthorne to Henry James and Wallace Stevens. This historical perspective adds the appeal of revisiting the American nineteenth-century literary and philosophical tradition, and even rewriting it.
Download or read book American Gothic Fiction written by Allan Lloyd-Smith and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-10-08 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the structure of other titles in the Continuum Introductions to Literary Genres series, American Gothic Fiction includes: A broad definition of the genre and its essential elements. A timeline of developments within the genre. Critical concerns to bear in mind while reading in the genre. Detailed readings of a range of widely taught texts. In-depth analysis of major themes and issues. Signposts for further study within the genre. A summary of the most important criticism in the field. A glossary of terms. An annotated, critical reading list. This book offers students, writers, and serious fans a window into some of the most popular topics, styles and periods in this subject. Authors studied in American Gothic Fiction include Charles Brockden Brown, William Montgomery Bird, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Gilmore Simms, John Neal, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ambrose Bierce, Emma Dawson, W.D. Howells, Henry James, William Faulkner, Anne Rice and William Gibson>
Download or read book The Complete Works of Herman Melville written by Herman Melville and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-03-17 with total page 5529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "The Complete Works of Herman Melville" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Novels: Typee Omoo Mardi Redburn White-Jacket Moby-Dick Pierre Israel Potter The Confidence-Man Billy Budd, Sailor Short Stories: The Piazza Bartleby, the Scrivener Benito Cereno The Lightning-Rod Man The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles The Bell-Tower The Apple-Tree Table Jimmy Rose I and My Chimney The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! The Fiddler Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs The Happy Failure The 'Gees The Two Temples Daniel Orme Poetry Collections: Clarel – A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War Timoleon and Other Ventures in Minor Verse Weeds and Wildings, With a Rose or Two John Marr and Other Sailors: Bridgeroom Dick Tom Deadlight Jack Roy The Haglets The Aeolian Harp To the Master of the "Meteor" Far off Shore The Man-of-War Hawk The Figure-Head The Good Craft "Snow Bird" Old Counsel The Tuft of Kelp The Maldive Shark To Ned Crossing the Tropics The Berg The Enviable Isles Pebbles Poems from Mardi We Fish Invocation Dirge Marlena Pipe Song Song of Yoomy Gold The Land of Love Essays: Fragments from a Writing Desk Etchings of a Whaling Cruise Authentic Anecdotes of "Old Zack" Mr. Parkman's Tour Cooper's New Novel A Thought on Book-Binding Hawthorne and His Mosses Criticism: Herman Melville by Virginia Woolf Herman Melville's Moby Dick by D.H. Lawrence Herman Melville's Typee and Omoo by D.H. Lawrence Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. His best known works include Typee, an account of his experiences in Polynesian life, its sequel Omoo, and the classic Moby-Dick.
Download or read book Shorter Novels of Herman Melville written by Herman Melville and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For contents, see Author Catalog.
Download or read book The Silence of Bartleby written by Dan McCall and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Silence of Bartleby, Dan McCall proposes a new reading of Herman Melville's classic short tale "Bartleby, The Scrivener." McCall discuss in detail how "Bartleby has been read in the last half-century by practitioners of widely used critical methodologies--including source-study, psychoanalytic interpretation, and Marxist analysis. He argues that in these elaborate readings of the tale, the text itself may be lost, for critics frequently seem to be more interested in their own concerns than in Melville's. Efforts to enrich "Bartleby" may actually impoverish it, preventing us from experiencing the sense of wonder and pain that the story provides. McCall combines close readings of Melville's tale with a lively analysis of over four decades of commentary, and he includes the complete text of story itself as an appendix, encouraging us to read the story on its own terms.
Download or read book The Complete Works of Herman Melville Novels Short Stories Poems Essays written by Herman Melville and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 5529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully edited collection of "The Complete Works of Herman Melville: Novels, Short Stories, Poems & Essays" has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Contents: Novels: Typee Omoo Mardi Redburn White-Jacket Moby-Dick Pierre Israel Potter The Confidence-Man Billy Budd, Sailor Short Stories: The Piazza Bartleby, the Scrivener Benito Cereno The Lightning-Rod Man The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles The Bell-Tower The Apple-Tree Table Jimmy Rose I and My Chimney The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! The Fiddler Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs The Happy Failure The 'Gees The Two Temples Daniel Orme Poetry Collections: Clarel – A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War Timoleon and Other Ventures in Minor Verse Weeds and Wildings, With a Rose or Two John Marr and Other Sailors: Bridgeroom Dick Tom Deadlight Jack Roy The Haglets The Aeolian Harp To the Master of the "Meteor" Far off Shore The Man-of-War Hawk The Figure-Head The Good Craft "Snow Bird" Old Counsel The Tuft of Kelp The Maldive Shark To Ned Crossing the Tropics The Berg The Enviable Isles Pebbles Poems from Mardi We Fish Invocation Dirge Marlena Pipe Song Song of Yoomy Gold The Land of Love Essays: Fragments from a Writing Desk Etchings of a Whaling Cruise Authentic Anecdotes of "Old Zack" Mr. Parkman's Tour Cooper's New Novel A Thought on Book-Binding Hawthorne and His Mosses Criticism: Herman Melville by Virginia Woolf Herman Melville's Moby Dick by D.H. Lawrence Herman Melville's Typee and Omoo by D.H. Lawrence Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change.
Download or read book American Obscurantism written by Peter Lurie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Obscurantism argues for a salutary indirection in U.S. culture. From its earliest canonical literary works through late twentieth and early twenty-first century film, the most compelling manifestations of America's troubled history have articulated this content through a unique formal and tonal obscurity. Envisioning the formidable darkness attending racial history at nearly every stage of the republic's founding and ongoing development, writers such as William Faulkner and Hart Crane or directors like the Coen brothers and Stanley Kubrick present a powerful critique of American conquest, southern plantation culture, and western frontier ideology. The book traces this arc from one of visual history's notoriously troubled texts: D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). American Obscurantism engages the basis of these explorations in Poe and Melville, each of whom present notable occlusions in characters' racial understanding, an obtuseness or naïveté that is expressed by a corresponding formal opacity. Such oblique historicity as the book describes allows a method at odds with - and implicitly critical of - the historicizing trend that marked literary studies in the wake of the theoretical turn. Citing critiques such as those of Tim Dean and others of efforts to politicize literary and cultural studies, this book restores an emphasis on aesthetic and medium-specific features to argue for a formalist historicity. Working through challenges to an implicitly white-,bourgeois, heteronormative polity, American Obscurantism posits an insistent, vital racial otherness at the heart of American literature and cinema. It examines this pattern across a canon that shows more self-doubt than assuredness, arguing for the value of openness and questioning in place of epistemological or critical certainty. Following the insistence on a lamenting historical look back in the cases of Faulkner, Kubrick, and the Coens, the book ends by linking Crane's famous optimism in The Bridge, one rooted in an ecstatic celebrating of the body and an optimism attending "America" as both concept and nation-state, to the contemporary digital turn and the hope for a more inclusive visual culture as well as racial vision.
