"Body Politics in 'Bartleby': Leprosy, Healing, and Christ-ness in Melville's 'Story of Wall- Street.' Nineteenth-Century Literature. If this is an inherent possibility of language, then "Bartleby" finally raises the question of what it means for meaning to arrive-of what it in fact means for something to mean at all." Bartleby is frightening to the narrator because he highlights the meaninglessness of work, something the narrator believes in. "The conclusion (or lack thereof) of 'Bartleby' points to the unsettling realization that every letter is potentially a 'dead letter'-that, as famously proposed by Jacques Derrida, a letter can always not arrive at its destination. Bartleby's reasons are always enigmatic, and the frame tale, that of a 'dead letter' office with an anonymous narrator, intensifies this sense of meaninglessness of life. Weinstock analyzes Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" as a kind of postmodern mystery story. "Doing justice to Bartleby." American Transcendental Quarterlyġ7.1 (2003): 23-42, 55. It was symbolic because Bartleby presented a section of people who openly rejected some employers' tasks while remaining in those businesses.īefore getting deep into the themes discussed… Additionally, the concepts surrounding the importance of Wall Street in Americans' lives were not as pronounced. The subject covered in "Bartleby the Scrivener" was far ahead of time as at the time, depression and job dissatisfaction among the middle class were rare subjects. Only a small section agrees on the interpretations' trajectory others completely fail to find harmony in their schools of thought. Over time, numerous critics have differed about the interpretations (Fisher, 59-79 Kaplan and Kloss, 63-79 Stempel and Stillians, 268-82). Analysts describe the art as arguably among the most challenging to interpret compared to other writers' works. "Bartleby the Scrivener" remains one of the best-known fictional works by Melville. The parallel between human resources management in a capitalist democratic society and the relationship between Bartleby and his employer is destined by Norberg to give birth to all kinds of assumptions form the part of his students.Īnalysis of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville The context Norberg presents Melville's short story is taking into account among others Thoreau's Walden "as a critical response to this progressive model of liberal state that is implicit in Emersonian individualism" (93). Norberg considers the whole picture that the technological, social, political and cultural changes of the nineteenth century created and points out to his students the importance of understanding the literature written in this period though the lenses of these changes. Norberg draws a parallel between the contemporary politics and the formation of public opinion and the way literature with "Bartleby the Scrivener" as a conclusive example, contributes to both formation and keeping the mind open to any change. The major motivation consists in the understanding of the way literature and the form of bringing it to the public in different ages contributed to the formation of public opinion. Peter Norberg explains why he introduced Bartleby the Scrivener in two of his courses. References: to challenge authority, the most powerful form of authority: that of public opinion in a democracy.
0 kommentar(er)
