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.And, as Melville s biographer AndrewDelbanco writes, By the 1850s, pro- and anti-slavery polem-ics had become fierce and frequent, and there were growingfears of slave rebellion.Additionally, Melville wrote BenitoCereno in the wake of such antislavery texts as Harriet BeecherStowe s Uncle Tom s Cabin and Frederick Douglass s Narrativeof the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.Numeroussources in the bibliography at the end of this chapter, includingDelbanco and Yellin, should help provide historical context onthe slavery debate.Consider whether this background causesyou to read Melville s text as a critique of slavery or as a workthat fed fears of slave violence and revolt. Benito Cereno 2274.Putnam s Magazine: Just as modern-day magazines frequentlyhave identifiable political leanings, so, too, did those publishedin Melville s time.Benito Cereno was serialized in Putnam sMonthly Magazine in November and December 1855.Howdoes Putnam s Magazine provide context for understanding theideas expressed in Benito Cereno?You can browse through, read, and search the 1853, 1854,and 1855 issues of Putnam s (along with later issues) onlineat Cornell University s Making of America Web site.A thor-ough examination of these issues should allow you to drawconclusions about Putnam s perspective on political issues ofthe day, including the question of slavery.It should be fruitfulto examine Benito Cereno as a political statement based on itspublication context.Form and GenreApparently, many early readers relished Benito Cereno as a kind of mys-tery story.They were anxious to read the clues in the text in order tosolve the mystery of the San Dominick.Clearly, the dreamlike atmo-sphere of Melville s work, coupled with the fairly apparent indicationsthat all is not as it seems, provide a basis for classifying Benito Cerenothis way.And yet, attentive readers are often quick to decipher the truesituation aboard the ship, and analysis of Melville s narrative style indi-cates that this was his intent.Readers should, in fact, figure out thepuzzle long before Delano does.Melville s narrative style helps to drawreaders attention away from Cereno, the object of Delano s study and thetitle character, turning their attention instead toward Delano himself.Through reflective analysis of the American captain, readers are led tosome of the most important themes of the text.Thoughtful examinationof Melville s methods and techniques can, consequently, provide effec-tive focuses for papers on Benito Cereno.Sample Topics:1.Narration and point of view: As the Reading to Write sec-tion of this chapter indicated, Melville employs a complicatednarrative style in Benito Cereno.While the story is told by athird-person narrator, the narrator s perspective often seems to 228 Bloom s How to Write about Herman Melvillemerge with Delano s, showing or telling us only what Delanosees.Why would Melville have chosen such a complicated nar-rative style to tell this story to his particular audience?This question relates to the previous topic about perceivingand understanding. You will need to evaluate Delano s powersas an observer and an interpreter, but this question also asksyou to think more pointedly about the difference between thereader s interpretation and Delano s.Consider the irony thatthis difference in perception creates.Given what you know ofthe historical situations that this text is rooted in, why wouldMelville want the readers of Putnam s to focus more on Del-ano and his intellectual perception than on the title charac-ter, Cereno? Are there qualities that Melville s audience mightshare with Delano?2.Narrative structure and history: Why does Melville rely soheavily on historical narratives in his construction of BenitoCereno, and why does he interrupt the dramatic tension of hisstory line by appending the deposition and the conversationbetween the captains to the logical conclusion of the narrativeof Delano s experiences on the San Dominick? Consider thestructure of Benito Cereno as a commentary on the way thathistory is constructed.The previous discussion of storytelling relates to this ques-tion, though this topic asks you to focus more specifically onthe construction of history.By the end of Melville s narrative,the reader has read a few different versions of the San Domi-nick s history [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.And, as Melville s biographer AndrewDelbanco writes, By the 1850s, pro- and anti-slavery polem-ics had become fierce and frequent, and there were growingfears of slave rebellion.Additionally, Melville wrote BenitoCereno in the wake of such antislavery texts as Harriet BeecherStowe s Uncle Tom s Cabin and Frederick Douglass s Narrativeof the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.Numeroussources in the bibliography at the end of this chapter, includingDelbanco and Yellin, should help provide historical context onthe slavery debate.Consider whether this background causesyou to read Melville s text as a critique of slavery or as a workthat fed fears of slave violence and revolt. Benito Cereno 2274.Putnam s Magazine: Just as modern-day magazines frequentlyhave identifiable political leanings, so, too, did those publishedin Melville s time.Benito Cereno was serialized in Putnam sMonthly Magazine in November and December 1855.Howdoes Putnam s Magazine provide context for understanding theideas expressed in Benito Cereno?You can browse through, read, and search the 1853, 1854,and 1855 issues of Putnam s (along with later issues) onlineat Cornell University s Making of America Web site.A thor-ough examination of these issues should allow you to drawconclusions about Putnam s perspective on political issues ofthe day, including the question of slavery.It should be fruitfulto examine Benito Cereno as a political statement based on itspublication context.Form and GenreApparently, many early readers relished Benito Cereno as a kind of mys-tery story.They were anxious to read the clues in the text in order tosolve the mystery of the San Dominick.Clearly, the dreamlike atmo-sphere of Melville s work, coupled with the fairly apparent indicationsthat all is not as it seems, provide a basis for classifying Benito Cerenothis way.And yet, attentive readers are often quick to decipher the truesituation aboard the ship, and analysis of Melville s narrative style indi-cates that this was his intent.Readers should, in fact, figure out thepuzzle long before Delano does.Melville s narrative style helps to drawreaders attention away from Cereno, the object of Delano s study and thetitle character, turning their attention instead toward Delano himself.Through reflective analysis of the American captain, readers are led tosome of the most important themes of the text.Thoughtful examinationof Melville s methods and techniques can, consequently, provide effec-tive focuses for papers on Benito Cereno.Sample Topics:1.Narration and point of view: As the Reading to Write sec-tion of this chapter indicated, Melville employs a complicatednarrative style in Benito Cereno.While the story is told by athird-person narrator, the narrator s perspective often seems to 228 Bloom s How to Write about Herman Melvillemerge with Delano s, showing or telling us only what Delanosees.Why would Melville have chosen such a complicated nar-rative style to tell this story to his particular audience?This question relates to the previous topic about perceivingand understanding. You will need to evaluate Delano s powersas an observer and an interpreter, but this question also asksyou to think more pointedly about the difference between thereader s interpretation and Delano s.Consider the irony thatthis difference in perception creates.Given what you know ofthe historical situations that this text is rooted in, why wouldMelville want the readers of Putnam s to focus more on Del-ano and his intellectual perception than on the title charac-ter, Cereno? Are there qualities that Melville s audience mightshare with Delano?2.Narrative structure and history: Why does Melville rely soheavily on historical narratives in his construction of BenitoCereno, and why does he interrupt the dramatic tension of hisstory line by appending the deposition and the conversationbetween the captains to the logical conclusion of the narrativeof Delano s experiences on the San Dominick? Consider thestructure of Benito Cereno as a commentary on the way thathistory is constructed.The previous discussion of storytelling relates to this ques-tion, though this topic asks you to focus more specifically onthe construction of history.By the end of Melville s narrative,the reader has read a few different versions of the San Domi-nick s history [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]