Benito Cereno

1) Melville’s life and career

poster protesting the return of Thomas Sims

“picturesque & of a profound morality”-editor who published Benito Cereno

portrait of Amasa Delano

further reading

Amasa Delano, A Narrative of Voyages and Travels (1817) on course website

Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) on google books

James Wood, How Fiction Works (2008)

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative

Delano’s Narrativegenre form content

ship’s log objective, rigid conventions day of rescue, seen from Delano’s ship

Delano’s Narrativegenre form content

ship’s log objective, rigid conventions day of rescue, seen from Delano’s ship

personal narrative subjective, free form day of rescue, seen from Cereno’s ship

Delano’s Narrativegenre form content

ship’s log objective, rigid conventions day of rescue, seen from Delano’s ship

personal narrative subjective, free form -voyage before encounter-day of rescue, seen from Cereno’s ship

Delano’s Narrativegenre form content

ship’s log objective, rigid conventions day of rescue, seen from Delano’s ship

personal narrative subjective, free form -voyage before encounter-day of rescue, seen from Cereno’s ship-conflict with Cereno after

Delano’s Narrativegenre form content

ship’s log objective, rigid conventions day of rescue, seen from Delano’s ship

personal narrative subjective, free form -voyage before encounter-day of rescue, seen from Cereno’s ship-conflict with Cereno after

court documents objectivity out of subjectivity, rigid conventions

day of rescue, seen in full

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative3) Melville’s use of Delano’s Narrative

decisions about contentchoosing protagonist

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative3) Melville’s use of Delano’s Narrative

decisions about contentchoosing protagonistadding, deleting, altering details

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative3) Melville’s use of Delano’s Narrative

decisions about contentdecisions about form

narration focalization

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative3) Melville’s use of Delano’s Narrative

decisions about contentdecisions about form

narration focalizationfree indirect style

free indirect discourse

direct discourse: He looked over at his wife. “She looks so unhappy,” he thought, “almost sick.” He wondered what to say.indirect discourse: He looked at his wife. She looked so unhappy, he thought, almost sick. He wondered what to say. free indirect discourse: He looked at his wife. Yes, she was tiresomely unhappy again, almost sick. What the hell should he say?

Delano on Africans

“odd-looking blacks . . . those old scissors-grinders, the Ashantees. . . those bed-ridden old women, the oakum-pickers”“peculiar love of uniting industry with pleasure”“less a servant than a devoted companion”“like a shepherd’s dog”“unsophisticated as leopardesses, loving as doves”

1) Melville’s life and career2) Delano’s Narrative3) Melville’s use of Delano’s Narrative

decisions about contentdecisions about form

narration court documents

It is a great pity [Melville] did not work it up as a connected tale instead of putting in the dreary documents at the end.—They should have made part of the substance of the story. . . I should alter all the dreadful statistics at the end. Oh! dear, why can’t Americans write good stories. They tell good lies enough, & plenty of them.”

-editor who published the novella, in a private letter to a friend