Description
Book SynopsisThrough analysis of Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener," this book analyzes major questions in Melville's literature as well as philosophical, theological, political, juridical, psychiatric, and literary discourses of his age and the America in which he lived.
Trade Review"This is the most exciting, original, and extended reading we now have of Melville's notoriously enigmatic text. Inhabiting the text in an incredibly intimate and persuasive manner, Arsic offers us nothing less than an ingenious and wonderfully inventive analysis of Bartleby's passivity and, indeed, suggests the various ways in which this passivity founds not only Bartleby's constitution but our own as well." -- Eduardo Cadava * Princeton University *
"Arsic writes clear and readable prose. In addition to this, her knowledgeable discussion makes intelligent use of a wide variety of sources ranging from Agamben to Coleridge, from Foucault to Lavater, and from Russeau to Warhol, and thus offers many new and interesting perspectives on Melville's great story." -Manfred Kopp
"Arsic presents a lucid, engaging essay on Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener... Arsic's study begins with the parable of Plato's cave and ends with a meditation on Joseph Turner's clouds as a way to suggest that in the singularity of Bartleby, philosophy turns to art and form gives way to formlessness." --
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