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: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691015090
• ISBN13: 9780691015095
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"