Overview

Melville: Fashioning in Modernity considers all of the major fiction with a concentration on lesser-known work, and provides a radically fresh approach to Melville, focusing on: clothing as socially symbolic; dress, power and class; the transgressive nature of dress; inappropriate clothing; the meaning of uniform; the multiplicity of identity that dress may represent; anxiety and modernity. The representation of clothing in the fiction is central to some of Melville's major themes; the relation between private and public identity, social inequality and how this is maintained; the relation between power, justice and authority; the relation between the ""civilized"" and the ""savage."" Frequently clothing represents the malleability of identity (its possibilities as well as its limitations), represents writing itself, as well as becoming indicative of the crisis of modernity. Clothing also becomes a trope for Melville's representations of authorship and of his own scene of writing. Melville: Fashioning in Modernity also encompasses identity in transition, making use of the examination of modernity by theorists such as Anthony Giddens, as well as on theories of figures such as the dandy. In contextualizing Melville's interest in clothing, a variety of other works and writers is considered; works such as Robinson Crusoe and The Scarlet Letter, and novelists such as Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Jack London, and George Orwell. The book has at its core a consideration of the scene of writing and the publishing history of each text.

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9781623563677

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A delightful and learned examination of the role played by clothing in various works by Herman Melville. Matterson sews a new suit for Melville. He shows us through his finely-stitched and delightfully-measured prose how clothing covers issues of identity, power, modernity, and rebellion in Melville's work - often in illuminating fashion. -- George Cotkin, Professor Emeritus of History, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, USA, and author of Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick

Matterson (Trinity College, Univ. of Dublin, Ireland) studies articles of dress in Melville's works, especially the correspondence between clothes and identity. The first chapter repeats the speculation of Melville scholars Merton Sealts Jr. and Hershel Parker that Melville may himself have written the so-called Agatha story he suggested Nathaniel Hawthorne use and may have been unable to publish the finished work, possibly the lost Isle of the Cross mentioned in letters. Matterson focuses on relatively minor works: Redburn, White-Jacket, Israel Potter, and Typee. He refers to the major works only in passing until the last chapter, which details the problems scholars encounter in producing any version of Billy Budd because Melville left it unfinished. Attempting to produce a readable text, early editors distorted the work by making choices Melville did not authorize. Melville's alterations suggest he intended to shift interest from the conflict between Billy Budd and John Claggart to the internal struggle within Captain Vere. There is not really enough on clothes in Melville to merit a book-length study of interest to scholars, but less-experienced readers can learn much from this work because it summarizes and synthesizes previous Melville scholarship in quite readable form. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. -- M. S. Stephenson, University of Texas at Brownsville CHOICE Melville: Fashioning in Modernity is a somewhat unusual book, and a rather great one at that ... [I]t manages to deliver a concise and lucid study of a respectable academic topic, as well as draw attention to the less-illuminated aspects of Melville's universe and works that are, to put it simply, begging to be studied ... A perfect combination of well-researched basics, exciting details and multitudinous opportunities for further enquiry. U.S. Studies Online A delightful and learned examination of the role played by clothing in various works by Herman Melville. Matterson sews a new suit for Melville. He shows us through his finely-stitched and delightfully-measured prose how clothing covers issues of identity, power, modernity, and rebellion in Melville's work - often in illuminating fashion. -- George Cotkin, Professor Emeritus of History, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, USA, and author of Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick

A delightful and learned examination of the role played by clothing in various works by Herman Melville. Matterson sews a new suit for Melville. He shows us through his finely-stitched and delightfully-measured prose how clothing covers issues of identity, power, modernity, and rebellion in Melville's work - often in illuminating fashion. -- George Cotkin, Professor Emeritus of History, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, USA, and author of Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick Matterson (Trinity College, Univ. of Dublin, Ireland) studies articles of dress in Melville's works, especially the correspondence between clothes and identity. The first chapter repeats the speculation of Melville scholars Merton Sealts Jr. and Hershel Parker that Melville may himself have written the so-called Agatha story he suggested Nathaniel Hawthorne use and may have been unable to publish the finished work, possibly the lost Isle of the Cross mentioned in letters. Matterson focuses on relatively minor works: Redburn, White-Jacket, Israel Potter, and Typee. He refers to the major works only in passing until the last chapter, which details the problems scholars encounter in producing any version of Billy Budd because Melville left it unfinished. Attempting to produce a readable text, early editors distorted the work by making choices Melville did not authorize. Melville's alterations suggest he intended to shift interest from the conflict between Billy Budd and John Claggart to the internal struggle within Captain Vere. There is not really enough on clothes in Melville to merit a book-length study of interest to scholars, but less-experienced readers can learn much from this work because it summarizes and synthesizes previous Melville scholarship in quite readable form. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. -- M. S. Stephenson, University of Texas at Brownsville CHOICE

Author Information

Stephen Matterson is Professor of English Studies and a Fellow of the College at Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. He is the author or editor of nine books and over sixty articles, essays and reviews on aspects of US literature. His past publications include the Penguin Classics edition of Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (edited with an Introduction and Notes, 1990); American Literature: The Essential Glossary (2003); the Wordsworth edition of The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman (edited with an introduction and notes, 2006); and Studying Poetry (with Darryl Jones; 1st edition, 2000; updated and enlarged second edition, 2011).

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