New from Oxford University Press: The Prosthetic Arts of Moby-Dick by David Haven Blake.
About the book, from the publisher:
The Prosthetic Arts of Moby-Dick offers the first book-length study of how physical disability shapes one of the world's most iconic novels. For generations, readers have viewed Captain Ahab's whalebone leg as a symbol of what he lacks, the limb he lost while fighting the white whale off the coast of Japan. David Haven Blake considers that ivory leg in a historical, medical, and geo-political context. Drawing on extensive archival research, he situates Ahab's prosthesis at the center of the novel's reflections on wounding, embodiment, and the role that Islamic cultures play in American narratives of revenge.Visit David Haven Blake's website.
Melville had a lifelong fascination with dismemberment. From the use of assistive devices to the phenomenon of phantom limbs, he keenly imagined the experience of disability on ship. Blake connects the novel's interest in prostheses with its use of Islamic imagery to characterize overwhelming power. In this radically new analysis, he identifies the character Fedallah as the captain's most important prosthesis in piloting the captain to his final battle with Moby Dick. A key to undestanding both Ahab and Ishmael, Fedallah emerges as the crutch upon which this novel of dismemberment leans.
Elegantly written and spanning each stage of Melville's career, The Prosthetic Arts of Moby-Dick is an eye-opening meditation on democracy, aggrievement, and the challenges of living in a global age.
My Book, The Movie: Liking Ike.
--Marshal Zeringue
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