English 2034 America & Benito Cereno. First History First nations (“Indians”) prehistory in...
-
Upload
basil-barnett -
Category
Documents
-
view
220 -
download
0
Transcript of English 2034 America & Benito Cereno. First History First nations (“Indians”) prehistory in...
English 2034 America & Benito Cereno
First History • First nations (“Indians”) prehistory in North and Central America
First Settlements • Jamestown (1608)
• Puritan dissenters and providence
First Settlements • “A new heaven and a new
earth”• “Divine providence”
Jamestown Massacre, 1622
• Indian / European hostilities
European possessions at 1750
American War of Independence 1765-83
• War and constitutionalism• The ‘rebel’ attitude
The Old South• French / European aristocratic values• Classless, or not?• Questionable allegiances to industrial north?
Civil War, 1861-65• North / South legacy
Slavery • Southern bitterness after reconstruction• Freedom and racism
The sea in Literature• The “romance” of
exploration and travel• Shipping as a
commercial and capitalistic activity, but also adventure
• Are ships what trains, then cars, then airplanes represent? Freedom?
Herman Melville (1819-91)
• Born in New York City to a merchant of French goods
• Became a teacher, then a sailor in 1839
• Married; moved his family to Massachusetts in 1850; became a customs inspector
• Major novel: Moby Dick (1851)• Died of cardiovascular disease• Little critical success in his
lifetime
Benito Cereno • First serialized in Putnam's Monthly in 1855• Re-published in The Piazza Tales (1856)• Based on a real encounter with a ship overthrown by mutinous slaves in 1805• Critical reception: “read by some as racist and pro-slavery and by others as anti-racist and abolitionist”
1807: International slavery prohibited by Congress1865: Slavery abolished
Themes • European racist fears of “black rage”; Caliban in Shakespeare’s Tempest
• Is Melville criticizing Captain Delano for not seeing how evil the black slaves are– or does he see them as fighting for their freedom?
• Is Babo a murderous monster, or a misunderstood victim?
• How innocent is Captain Delano in this economy of slavery?
• Or: is it just a story about “evil,” with no real race question?