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Voicing slavery through silence: narrative mutiny in Melville's Benito Cereno. (Herman Melville)

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From: Mosaic (Winnipeg)
Date: 19930322
Author:Haegert, John

An analysis of 'Benito Cereno,' a 19th century fictionalized account of an historical slave-revolt in the high seas, is conducted. The Herman Melville novella is examined both as a representation of the author's stance against slavery as well as a narrative mutiny in order to determine how idea and structure engage one another in a novel. The argument that the ambiguity and indeterminacy that is evident in the novella comes from the uneasiness felt by Melville in portraying an oppressed group is defended.

If anything can be said to dominate our cultural and historical preoccupations of ...

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