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Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville
In this major reconsideration of Herman Melville's life and work, Michael Rogin shows that Melville's novels are connected both to the important issues of his time and to the exploits of his patrician and politically prominent family--which, three generations after its Revolutionary War heroes, produced an alcoholic, a bankrupt, and a suicide.
Rogin argues that a history of Melville's fiction, and of the society represented in it, is also a history of the writer's family. He describes how that family first engaged Melville in and then isolated him from American political and social life. Melville's brother and father-in-law are shown to link Moby-Dick to the crisis over expansion and slavery. White-Jacket and Billy Budd, which concern shipboard conflicts between masters and seamen, are related to an execution at sea in which Melville's cousin played a decisive part. The figure of Melville's father haunts The Confidence Man, whose subject is the triumph of the marketplace and the absence of authority.
"This book," Rogin writes, "makes several claims which ought to be stated at the outset:
• "that Herman Melville is a recorder and interpreter of American society whose work is comparable to that of the great 19th-century European realists;
• "that there was a crisis of bourgeois society at midcentury on both continents, but that in America it entered politics by way of slavery and race rather than class;
• "that the crisis called into question the ideal realm of liberal political freedom;
• "that Melville was particularly sensitive to the American crisis because of the political importance of his clan and the political history of his family;
• "that a study of Melville's fiction, and of the society refracted through it, must also be a history of Melville's family, and of the writer's relation to his kin;
• "and finally, that Melville rendered American history symbolically, so that a history of his fiction, his family, and his psyche is also a history of the development and displacement of major symbols in his work."
Rogin argues that a history of Melville's fiction, and of the society represented in it, is also a history of the writer's family. He describes how that family first engaged Melville in and then isolated him from American political and social life. Melville's brother and father-in-law are shown to link Moby-Dick to the crisis over expansion and slavery. White-Jacket and Billy Budd, which concern shipboard conflicts between masters and seamen, are related to an execution at sea in which Melville's cousin played a decisive part. The figure of Melville's father haunts The Confidence Man, whose subject is the triumph of the marketplace and the absence of authority.
"This book," Rogin writes, "makes several claims which ought to be stated at the outset:
• "that Herman Melville is a recorder and interpreter of American society whose work is comparable to that of the great 19th-century European realists;
• "that there was a crisis of bourgeois society at midcentury on both continents, but that in America it entered politics by way of slavery and race rather than class;
• "that the crisis called into question the ideal realm of liberal political freedom;
• "that Melville was particularly sensitive to the American crisis because of the political importance of his clan and the political history of his family;
• "that a study of Melville's fiction, and of the society refracted through it, must also be a history of Melville's family, and of the writer's relation to his kin;
• "and finally, that Melville rendered American history symbolically, so that a history of his fiction, his family, and his psyche is also a history of the development and displacement of major symbols in his work."
- GenresNonfictionBiography
372 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 1983
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About the author
Michael Rogin
13 books8 followers[NB: sometimes published as Michael Paul Rogin]
Rogin was a political theorist and the Robson Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in government from Harvard University and his master's and doctoral degrees in political science at the University of Chicago.
Rogin began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1963 and remained there throughout his distinguished career. His books and many articles and essays earned him a distinguished place in the United States and Europe among scholars of American politics, who valued the breadth and originality of his work and its interdisciplinary character.
Rogin's books included:
• The Intellectuals and McCarthy (1967) [which he described as "a Gothic horror story disguised as social science."]
• Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (1975)
• Subversive Genealogy: the Politics and Art of Herman Melville (1983)
• 'Ronald Reagan', the Movie, and Other Episodes in Political Demonology (1987)
• Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot (1996)
• Independence Day, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Enola Gay (1998)
Rogin's work appealed to and challenged the preconceptions of a wide variety of academics. His book on Ronald Reagan attracted the attention of the media (Rogin was interviewed on CBS TV's "60 Minutes") and the general public.
He served on the editorial committee of UC Press for several decades and was one of the founding members of the prestigious humanities journal Representations.
He was famed at Berkeley for his remarkably creative lectures, which would combine political theory, literature, feminism, interpretations of film and art, psychoanalytic insights, and a firm grasp of the history & material conditions underlying any lecture topic.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeley...
Rogin was a political theorist and the Robson Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in government from Harvard University and his master's and doctoral degrees in political science at the University of Chicago.
Rogin began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1963 and remained there throughout his distinguished career. His books and many articles and essays earned him a distinguished place in the United States and Europe among scholars of American politics, who valued the breadth and originality of his work and its interdisciplinary character.
Rogin's books included:
• The Intellectuals and McCarthy (1967) [which he described as "a Gothic horror story disguised as social science."]
• Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (1975)
• Subversive Genealogy: the Politics and Art of Herman Melville (1983)
• 'Ronald Reagan', the Movie, and Other Episodes in Political Demonology (1987)
• Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot (1996)
• Independence Day, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Enola Gay (1998)
Rogin's work appealed to and challenged the preconceptions of a wide variety of academics. His book on Ronald Reagan attracted the attention of the media (Rogin was interviewed on CBS TV's "60 Minutes") and the general public.
He served on the editorial committee of UC Press for several decades and was one of the founding members of the prestigious humanities journal Representations.
He was famed at Berkeley for his remarkably creative lectures, which would combine political theory, literature, feminism, interpretations of film and art, psychoanalytic insights, and a firm grasp of the history & material conditions underlying any lecture topic.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeley...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 22, 2015
His chapter on Moby-Dick and the American 1848 is astounding. Some might think a marxist reconsideration of Melville's work is worth scoffing at. I'm here to tell you that you are, quite simply, wrong. Full of historical details and mind-blowing connections, Rogin's book is required reading for Melville readers and scholars.
April 19, 2009
fascinating ideas buried underneath academic twaddle
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews