Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of Individualism

By Wai Chee Dimock

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691067589
• ISBN13: 9780691067582
• Release Date: March 1989
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.