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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu11556667662021-08-03T05:51:19Z "Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville Corner, Jason L. My title comes from a review of Herman Melville’s 1848 book Mardi, a review that described the book as a “monstrous compound.” In a sense, my dissertation is primarily dedicated to unpacking this comment. Melville’s major works – Mardi, Moby-Dick, Pierre, and The Confidence-Man – are indeed monstrous compounds. They are “compounds” because they are written in a mixed-genre form, combining different fictional genres in one text. And they are “monstrous” because they encode Melville’s philosophy of tragic nihilism, his belief in the absolute falsity of all moral beliefs, and in the tragic unavoidability of such false beliefs. My dissertation demonstrates the way in which Melville’s mixed-genre texts relate form to content, and shows Melville’s complex and ambivalent relationship both to the popular fiction of the antebellum period and to his own audience. This dissertation makes a number of genuinely original contributions both to the study of Melville’s work and to the study of nineteenth-century American literature generally. Although critics have explored Melville’s interest in philosophy since the beginning of the academic study in Melville, and a new generation of critics has been interested in the popular literature of the nineteenth century, both in and of itself and in relation to the work of the canonical writers, no one has put these two areas of concern together. Interest in antebellum popular fiction is on the wax, and this dissertation contributes to that discussion by paying careful attention to that fiction’s moral structure, and how that moral structure manifests itself differently in different genres. The picture it paints of Herman Melville manages to resolve many contradictions, including those between Melville the high-minded philosopher and Melville the bestselling writer, and between the Melville who desperately seeks readers and the Melville who seems concerned with baffling and frustrating his readers. 2006-11-21 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1155666766 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1155666766 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
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NDLTD
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| language |
English
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NDLTD
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| author |
Corner, Jason L.
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| spellingShingle |
Corner, Jason L.
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| author_facet |
Corner, Jason L.
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| author_sort |
Corner, Jason L.
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| title |
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| title_short |
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| title_full |
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| title_fullStr |
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| title_full_unstemmed |
"Monstrous Compounds": Genre and Value in Herman Melville
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| title_sort |
"monstrous compounds": genre and value in herman melville
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| publisher |
The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
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| publishDate |
2006
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| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1155666766
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AT cornerjasonl monstrouscompoundsgenreandvalueinhermanmelville
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1719426645719252992
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