Beyond the Walls - Potentiality Aborted. The Politics of Intersubjective Universalism in Herman ...

598 Pages·2014·2.57 MB·English

Beyond the Walls - Potentiality Aborted.
The Politics of Intersubjective Universalism in
Herman Melville’s Clarel
Laura López Peña
(cid:3)
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Doctorat en Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals (2008-2013)
(Programa de doctorat amb Menció de qualitat 2011-2014)
Línia de recerca: Construcció i representació de gèneres i d’imaginaris nacionals

Beyond the Walls—Potentiality Aborted.
The Politics of Intersubjective Universalism
in Herman Melville’s Clarel
TESI DOCTORAL

Laura López Peña
Director: Dr. Rodrigo Andrés González
Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya
Universitat de Barcelona

Barcelona, June 2013

To Rodrigo, for the universalism.
To Tim, for the intersubjectivity.
To Melville, for Clarel.

A mi familia, por todo.
A mi madre, por más.

“[…] but of all this you must of course be your own judge —I but submit matter to you —
I dont [sic.] decide.” (Herman Melville, Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, 13 August 1852,
Correspondence 235)

“‘The gate,’ cried Nehemiah, ‘the gate
Of David!’ Wending thro’ the strait,
And marking that, in common drought,
’Twas yellow waste within as out,
The student mused: The desert, see,
It parts not here, but silently,
Even like a leopard by our side,
It seems to enter in with us—
At home amid men’s homes would glide.
But hark! that wail how dolorous:
So grieve the souls in endless dearth;
Yet sounds it human—of the earth!” (Herman Melville, Clarel 1976 1.24.77-88)

“Ye two are the opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is
Starbuck; and ye two are all mankind.” (Herman Melville, Moby-Dick 1851: 484)

“There’s another rendering now; but still one text. All sorts of men in one kind of world,
you see.” (Herman Melville, Moby-Dick 1851: 384)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“How is it, that while all of us human beings are so
entirely disembarrassed in censuring a person; that so
soon as we would praise, then we begin to feel awkward?
I never blush after denouncing a man; but I grow scarlet,
after eulogizing him. And yet this is all wrong; and yet
we can’t help it; and so we see how true was that musical
sentence of the poet when he sang —
‘We can’t help ourselves’”
(Herman Melville, Letter to Sophia Peabody Hawthorne,
8 January 1852, Correspondence 219)

I have been lucky. And I am aware that I have been lucky.
For years, I have looked forward to expressing my gratitude to the people who have
become important in my life and who have made my existence a happier one during the
years I have been writing the dissertation I present in this volume. Longing to express
my debt to each and all of them, however, I painfully grow aware of the difficulty of
such a task, of the incapability of language to capture my admiration, gratitude, and love
for these people. And, yet, language is the only means I have to express such feelings
(though I would be glad to complement words with a hug or two to those who wish it),
and I like to think that it is the heart that guides the fingers that type these words, as I
cannot think of any other source from which one could possibly write.
This dissertation owes its very existence to my advisor Dr. Rodrigo Andrés
(Universitat de Barcelona), without whom no interest in Herman Melville would have
ever emerged in the first place. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Andrés and to Rodrigo, for
what are already many years of work, friendship, caring, mutual help, learning,
unlearning, trust, laughter, travels, protection, poems, pilgrimages, growth…
togetherness. For believing in me even when I did not; for being continually for me,
with me; for helping me realize what moved me to write this dissertation and having
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
faith that I would find my way, for giving me the necessary freedom to do what was
important to me, at my own pace; for allowing me to develop my own relationship with
Melville and with his texts, for enabling me to ‘dive’ on my own and fill my lungs with
oxygen for the plunge; for his excellent comments and deep dedication to this
dissertation at all moments. For being a good friend and a good boss (although I,
somehow, prefer the word ‘teacher’), and for finding the balance between both roles.
For expanding my sense of familiarity, and for becoming part of my family. For making
me a member of other families. This dissertation stemmed from your contagious love
for literature and is greatly indebted to your generosity ever since I met you as an
undergraduate student in the spring semester of 2005 (oh, that memorable subject on
“Teoria literària i textos anglesos”, now sadly extinct). It is an homage to your
professional guidance and your care. Esta tesis está dedicada a ti, Rodrigo, de corazón:
“To what infinite height of loving wonder and admiration I may yet be borne […],—
that, I can not tell. But already I feel that this Hawthorne has dropped germinous seeds
into my soul…” (“Hawthorne and His Mosses” 1850: 59). Con infinita admiración y
con mucho amor, subscribo a estas palabras de Melville, with much, much gratitude for
the “germinous seeds”, and aware that I could not have shared this trip –oh, what a
trip!– with a better fellow traveler.
This dissertation is also indebted to the enormous generosity of Dr. Timothy
Marr (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill), who energized me with every
conversation and illuminated my work at a time when I could see no clarity or
direction. It is no exaggeration to affirm that Dr. Marr has been determining to the mid
and final stage of this dissertation, believing in my work, and enabling me to discover
the particular color of my own voice, why it was only me that could write this
dissertation in the way this dissertation is written. I am very grateful for his amazing
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
kindness and generosity, professionally, personally, since our first meeting in Jerusalem
in June 2009, and especially during my two research trips to Chapel Hill, NC, in the
spring semesters of 2012 and 2013, respectively. Thank you, Tim, for ‘adopting’ me at
UNC under your supervision on these different occasions, for your generous
dedication, and for reading early and not so early drafts of this dissertation and
providing important feedback. For sharing your time, your carrel, your home, your
family, and your self with me, and for making me feel at home. For allowing me to
learn with and from you so generously. For the healing, the peace, the conviviality, the
sharing, the music. For speaking Melville, and for speaking Clarel. For the generous
intersubjectivity (and the insights on intersubjectivity), and your capacity to generate
heart-to-heart communication. For so many encouraging conversations, and for your
piercing questions. For your “deep and noble nature” (“Hawthorne and His Mosses”
47), and for your “all-engendering heart” and “great, deep intellect, which drops down
into the universe like a plummet” (51).
To Melville, for the potentiality; for connecting me to wonderful people. For
living searchingly—

Throughout the writing of this dissertation I have enjoyed the support of a four-
year predoctoral scholarship at the Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, at the
Universitat de Barcelona, under the supervision of Dr. Rodrigo Andrés. This
scholarship or ‘beca’ APIF (Ajut de Personal Investigador en Formació per a Alumnes
de Tercer Cicle de la Universitat de Barcelona) has provided the material conditions for
the writing of this dissertation, and has allowed me to carry out three research trips to
important U.S. universities and archives in three different academic years, which have
been determinant for my work, and during which I enjoyed the supervision of
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