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In an original and provocative series of readings that range across Melville´s career, the contributors consider not only the sources and implications of Melville´s aesthetics, but the relationship between aesthetic criticism, historical analysis, and contemporary theory.

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Introduction: Aesthetics and Melville; S.Otter & G.Sanborn PART I: THE MATTER OF STYLE Blubber: Melville´s Bad Writing; A.Calder Melville´s Ornamentation: On Irrelevant Beauty; T.Davis Melvillean Provocation and the Critical Art of Devotion; A.Dubois PART II: CASE STUDIES Strange Sensations: Sex and Aesthetics in ´The Counterpane´; C.Looby Dead Bones and Honest Wonders: The Aesthetics of Natural Science in Moby-Dick; J.J.Baker Pulled by the Line: Speed and Photography in Moby-Dick; L.Rigal ´Pierre´s Nominal Conversions´; E.Duquette ´The Silhouette of a Content´: ´Bartleby´ and American Literary Specificity; N.Ruttenburg The Revolutionary Aesthetics of Israel Potter; R.S.Levine Theatricality, Strangeness, and the Aesthetics of Plurality in The Confidence-Man; J.Greiman Battle Music: Melville and the Forms of War; P.Coviello Melville´s Song of Songs: Clarel as Aesthetic Pilgrimage; I.Pardes

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"This collection of essays makes an essential contribution to American literary scholarship by expanding the hermeneutical possibilities of theory and practice as well as enriching our understanding of Melville´s literary works." - Review 19

"Melville and Aesthetics provides a snapshot of Melville criticism as it is currently practiced by some of the field´s most accomplished interpreters. The volume treats a wide range of texts by Melville, including the poetry, and essay after essay wrestles with Melville´s astonishing stylistic achievements with intelligence and verve.This is a volume that will be welcomed by students and specialists alike." - Jonathan Elmer, Professor of English and American Studies, Indiana University and author of On Lingering and Being Last: Race and Sovereignty in the New World

"Melville and Aesthetics gives us a set of elegant and interpretively rich essays that add up to a powerful argument about the essential place of aesthetics in Melville´s career. The ´extravagant qualities of Melville´s lines,´ to use Otter and Sanborn´s phrase, are made visible and analytically vital as never before." - Cindy Weinstein, Professor of English, California Institute of Technology

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GEOFFREY SANBORN is an Associate Professor of Literature at Bard College, USA.

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