Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of Individualism - Softcover

"In this tenacious and articulate study, Professor Dimock explores the 'textual governance' of Melville's fiction: the ways in which the expectations and practice of imperialism in antebellum America necessarily informed--and limited--the poetics of Melville's 'authorial sovereignty' over his writings. Not everyone will agree with her conclusions about Melville's problematical poetics and historicism; yet her book will send the reader back again and again to Melville, equipped with new insights into his art and vision."--R. Bruce Bickley, Jr., American Literature

Wai Chee Dimock approaches Herman Melville not as a timeless genius, but as a historical figure caught in the politics of an imperial nation and an "imperial self." She challenges our customary view by demonstrating a link between the individualism that enabled Melville to write as a sovereign author and the nationalism that allowed America to grow into what Jefferson hoped would be an "empire for liberty."