Cosmopolitan Imaginaries In Herman Melville’s Literary Writings

Situating Herman Melville’s literary creations in the tradition of American literature and the political,economic and cultural contexts in the nineteenth-century U.S.,this dissertation reassesses,from the perspective of cosmopolitanism,representations of interracial contacts,cross-cultural communications and transnational practices in Melville’s literary writings as well as the cosmopolitan and nationalistic connotations of such representations.Current studies on Melville’s cosmopolitan imaginaries mostly believe that Melville denounces imperialism and colonialism,accentuates racial and cultural connections and embraces the cosmopolitan ideals of interethnic unity and multicultural coexistence.Such interpretations,nevertheless,underestimate the nationalistic discourse in Melville’s works,leave aside the complicated relationship between Melville’s cosmopolitanism and nationalism,and consolidate cultural purity and cultural prejudices in their analysis of the similarities and differences between cultures.Moreover,previous criticisms focusing on the dimension of community(race,culture,class)neglect the free development of individuals who strive to shake off the restraints imposed by communities and overlook the essentiality of individual freedom to the idea of cosmopolitanism.This dissertation argues that Melville’s literary writings construct a cosmopolitan American identity.Melville develops in his writing a cosmopolitan interest that squarely challenges U.S.expansionism,cultural purity and the alienation of individuals of his time.Featuring in cultural diversity,interracial equality and individualism,such a cosmopolitan vision complies with values such as freedom,democracy and equality upon which American exceptionalism is conceptualized,and can be described as cosmopolitan Americanism.On the ethnic level,Melville refutes the prevalent Anglo-Saxon racist discourse and practices in the nineteenth-century U.S.and celebrates rich ethnic diversity.He projects the United States as an earthly paradise and a model nation comprehending people of all ethnicities and integrates cosmopolitanism into national identity.Pierre unfolds the history of America’s lands and the conflicts between immigrants and Native Americans,throws into question the dominant ideology of Anglo-Saxon superiority in lineage,and prompts readers to consider the disparagement and elimination of American Indians by the United States.Moby-Dick obliquely critiques the selfdestructive nature of Anglo-Saxon expansionism as endorsed by Young America through the shipwreck of Pequod in its quest for Moby Dick led by Captain Ahab,Melville envisions a cosmopolitan society where ethnic differences are tolerated and interethnic unity is assured.Set on an American ship,this cosmopolitan outlook exhibits American ideals.Redburn presents the plight of European immigrants in the mid-nineteenth-century U.S.and censures nativists for their repulsion and rejection of the foreign.For Melville,the U.S.as a nation where "all tribes and people are forming into one federated whole" should renounce racial prejudice,improve the living conditions of immigrants and put true democracy into practice.Culturally,Melville deploys a cosmopolitan perspective to contemplate U.S.practices and American cultural identity and advocates cultural conversation,integration,progress and democracy.Nonetheless,characterized by its diversity and development,Melville’s cultural cosmopolitanism resonates with such American values as freedom,democracy and equality,which illustrates his affirmation of the democratic culture in America.Typee and Omoo protest the idea of cultural purity that lies behind U.S.imperial practices and extol Polynesian cultural values.Concurrently,Melville realizes globalization is at work and that Pacific islanders must give up their indolent life of the tropics in order to survive.This is Melville’s imagination of world culture under the influence of Enlightenment thought,and it corresponds to notions such as progress and development in the rhetoric of American exceptionalism.Apart from the cultural clash between the U.S.and Polynesian societies,Melville’s cosmopolitan imaginaries also involve America’s entanglement with Europe as a former British colony."Benito Cereno" construes American culture as an alternative to Spanish brutal despotism and proclaims an American cultural identity grounded on egalitarian democracy.In Redburn,Melville sees Britain as reflections of America and examines America’s cultural practices.Through the protagonist’s perceptions and ruminations,Melville criticizes an America that has not made good on its promise of building a "city upon a hill."Yet Melville,when accusing America of its failures,simply reaffirms America as an exceptional nation.On an individualist dimension,Melville laments for the alienation of individuals and appeals for the free development of individuals that goes beyond communities.However,the ideals of freedom and individualism Melville worships figure prominently in America’s exceptional myth and are what laissez-faire capitalism premised upon.Individualism and cosmopolitanism are inherently correlated in their deep concern for individual freedom.Though American democracy and American exceptionalism promise to guarantee the free development of individuals,America has failed in practice its pledge to ensure it.The eponymous sailor of Israel Potter is beguiled by nation states and falls victim to transnational conflicts.The erosion of individual freedom,rights and dignity by industrial capitalism is uncovered in "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids." For Melville,the free development of individuals should take priority over the interests of communities,yet this does not mean that individuals are isolated beings.In Moby-Dick,Captain Ahab’s disregard for the needs of others leads to his destruction,whereas Ishmael’s moral responsibility proves to his final salvation.In Melville’s imagination,one must recognize universal humanity and show others respect so as to transcend the existent community forms and achieve self-development.The cosmopolitan nationalism Melville’s literary creations display not only involves other races and cultures,but entails national culture and the free development of individuals that goes beyond nation states.In this sense,Melville’s thoughts are undoubtedly radical and forward-thinking.In a radical manner,Melville lashes against expansionism and cultural colonialism promoted by the U.S.government in his day and reveals the predicament individuals are stuck in.Forward-looking,the interracial connections and transcultural contacts he imagines anticipate the "cosmopolitan America" advocated by Randolph Bourne in the early twentieth century and by U.S.today,and his concern over alienated individuals predates the modernist call for human freedom by several decades.The racial equality,cultural diversity and individual freedom Melville espouses are central to the idea of cosmopolitanism,and cohere with ideals of democracy,equality and freedom upon which American exceptionalism is contrived.In affirming such values,Melville unwittingly solidifies the myth of American exceptionalism.