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"Born-free-and-equal": benign cliche and narrative imperialism in Melville's 'Mardi.' (Herman Melville)

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From: Studies in the Novel
Date: 19930322
Author:Berthold, Michael C.

Captivity in various guises unifies the seemingly diffuse narrative in Herman Melville's novel 'Mardi.' Taji, the principal character, must repeatedly deal with situations in which he is either captive or captor. Melville used these incidents to expose the pretentious rhetoric that often obscures the concept of captivity. In addition, Melville sought to question his own reliance on American cliches of freedom and captivity.

One of the recurring problems for critics of Melville's Mardi, a novel awash in its own heteroglossia, has been the book's seeming formlessness. In a classic thesis, ...

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