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  • Melville and the Wall of the Modern Age
  • Anna Krauthammer
Makino, Arimichi , ed. Melville and the Wall of the Modern Age. Tokyo: Nan'un-do, 2010. 238 pages. ¥4,800.

This book is a collection of eleven essays that focus on several of Herman Melville's more analyzed works but also includes several of his less examined ones, specifically, "Rip Van Winkle's Lilac" and Melville's early and later poems. A major value of this collection lies in the number of analyses of works not examined often, thus opening up new areas of criticism for contemporary and international scholars.

As a group, the essays examine Melville's response to "the wall of the modern age." The "modern age" is described differently by the various writers. Editor [End Page 378] Armichi Makino in "The Modern Age as Ambiguous Wall: Melville From a Japanese Perspective" defines it as "...the period from the rise of capitalism to the end of World War II...when capitalism had substantially transformed into imperialism" (3). Following Makino's chronology, Mitsuru Sanada in "'Rip Van Winkle's Lilac': Its Themes From the Viewpoints of Prose and Poetry" refers to "the themes that Herman Melville took up throughout his life; particularly, the difficulty of being an artist in an increasingly capitalistic America; and the irreversibility of the modern to the primitive" (185). Tomoyuki Zettsu in "Captain Ahab's Cabin: Melville's Southern Connection in Moby Dick" refers to "the paradox of modernity; the struggle between pride and guilt, or the tension between slaved and unslaved, fueled by the (im)possibility of understanding the Other" (52). In this essay, Zettsu also links themes in Moby Dick to those in Uncle Tom's Cabin and considers a non-white identity for Ahab. In several of the essays, then, there are a number of descriptions of the "modern age" and "modernity," although there is agreement that capitalism is a defining characteristic of the modern age. Because of this variation, the title may be confusing; however, it is clear from these essays that the modern age's marketplace culture posed a barrier for Melville's fictive characters and for Melville as a writer. Furthermore, Melville's own resistance to this barrier was reflected in his works.

The essays may be grouped by major themes running through Melville's works, examined in depth through the critical lens of the title: religious hypocrisy, racism, colonialism, shifting paradigms of identity, the destructive effects of capitalism, and the attraction of the primitive. Melville was troubled by the cultural contradictions he saw in his lifetime and by his recognition that these contradictions were the legacy of a EuroAmerican enterprise: the attempt to establish a unique identity on a new continent. Therefore, it would be impossible to accurately analyze his works without a recognition of the cultural legacy Melville was heir to—which these essays provide.

The essays that most nearly address the pecuniary characteristics of the modern age as defined in the collection are the two essays about "Bartleby, the Scrivener." In the first, "'Bartleby, the Scrivener': The Politics of Biography and the Future of Capitalism," by Ikuno Saiki, the author mentions the relevance of John Jacob Astor's life as a framework for the story, as well as Melville's recognition of the "degenerative aspects of capitalism in the life and death of John Jacob Astor" (86). In the second essay, "The Wall of Modernization: 'Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,'" Keiko Fujie references Wall Street itself and states: "Wall Street has developed into the American hub of capitalism. The wall symbolized the capitalism or the modernization of America....[T]he wall divided and separated people..." (98). He goes on to speak of this separation as based on class distinctions, using the wall as a metaphor. The wall is resisted by Bartleby, but accepted by the lawyer.

Another set of essays examines racism, slavery, and colonialism in the South Seas and the United States. Shoko Tsuji, in "Melville's Criticism of Slavery: American Hispanophobia in 'Benito Cereno,'" enlarges and refocuses this Melville work from black/white issues and slavery to include larger political, economic, and colonial issues in the Western Hemisphere. Naochika...

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