The huge range of critical and academic debate about this monster of a novel confirms "Moby-Dick"'s status as a vital and exhilarating exploration of the role of American ideology in defining modern consciousness. This "Columbia Critical Guide" starts with extracts from Melville's own letters and essays and from early reviews of "Moby-Dick" that set the terms for later critical evaluations. Subsequent chapters deal with the "Melville Revival" of the 1920s and the novel's central place in the establishment, growth, and reassessment of American Studies in the 1940s and 1950s. The final chapters examine postmodern New Americanist readings of the text, and how these provide new models for thinking about American culture.
- ISBN10 0231115385
- ISBN13 9780231115384
- Publish Date 21 July 1999
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 25 October 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Columbia University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English