Bartleby lit crit social commentary Putnam`s Post

Canonical Texts and Context: The Example of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A
Story of Wall Street"
Author(s): Sheila Post-Lauria
Source: College Literature, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jun., 1993), pp. 196-205
Published by: College Literature
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112038 .
Accessed: 29/10/2014 11:41
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
College Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Literature.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
AND COMMENTS
NOTES
Canonical
Texts
and Context:
the Scrivener:
"Bartleby,
The Example
of Herman
Melville's
A Story of Wall Street"
Post-Lauria
Sheila
at
Post-Lauria, assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts
Boston, has recently completed a book-length manuscript on Herman Melville and
popular antebellum culture. She has published several articles on the cultural con
texts
of
Recent
ers who
ity,
antebellum
"classic"
from
significantly
Because
these
that
analytical
textual
analysis
provides
between
ing the relations
texts
canonical
historical
involve
whose
"timeless
deconstructionist
approaches
it
themes,"
have
contextualization.
of
literary
one
the
the greatest
that
genius
writing
do
not
so obvious
study
1853 tale, "Bartleby,
to many
recover
by
new
does
yet
professors
or
historicist
limits
however,
assumption,
Canon
writers.
such
require
severely
not
necessarily
pedagogical
canon
imply
the Scrivener: A Story of Wall
to be
appears
one of
Indeed
is found
seems
con
Indeed,
in virtually
nonetheless
curriculum,
every
college
students.
least appreciated
"classic"
works
by undergraduate
students
in teaching
tale is to convince
Melville's
challenges
which
ideological
new
employed
from standard critical treatments of "classic"
is argued,
This
reverence. Herman Melville's
Street,"
of
cultural
and
cultural,
literary,
revisionists
the nature
insights
and culture.
writer
decoding.2
to teaching
"classic"
resonate
works,
and
This critical shift departs markedly
texts
authors
into
needed
in recovering
writ
"other"
in terms of race, class,
ethnic
resulted
has
"classic"
"other"
from
absent
largely
methods
canon
the
expanding
differ
and gender.1
perspectives
in
interest
often
works.
eludes
these
of
artistic
the
readers
first-time
a
of
story they consider puzzling, at best. Shared aesthetic values, or, in the words of Paul
Lauter, "congeneric lives" (104) fostered by graduate school training, together with
professional
Melville's
lifting
reverence
artistry
to Melville's
Melville
the
all
presents
works,
its cultural
too
standard
of narrative
artistry
often
canon,
other
among
from
"Bartleby"
?a
practice
analysis
form
the particular
ute
for
in,
in his most
two
stories
title in Putnam's Monthly highlights
"Bartleby,
context
in literature
structure
and
remarkable
in "Bartleby,
cement
uncritically
the
Scrivener."
and focusing
upon
of
the
the multi-textual
stylistic
tales.
Scrivener."
innovations
The
for
act
of
textual/formal
readers'
classrooms?limits
to the
appreciation
Yet
the
that
author's
access
to
contrib
original
layers of the tale.3 "Bartleby, the
196
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Scrivener:
story
layered
among
author
miss
the narration
relates
of the story of Bartleby
of Wall-Street"
Story
Wall
Street.
narrator's
the title of Melville's
Indeed,
shortening
or even
?a
common
the Scrivener"
tale to "Bartleby"
"Bartleby,
?
restricts
modern
editors
the hermeneutic
unnecessarily
possibilities
in his double
title. Without
the original
context,
suggests
publishing
multi
the
this
"Bartleby,
for
convincingly
narrative
the
of the tale.
the bivalency
in its
the Scrivener"
socio-literary
tools that may
pedagogical
students
that mark
narrative
particular
the tale. Contextual
role
literary
economics,
played in the shaping of Melville's
and
styles,
literary
and
in
active
can more
characterization,
rescue
Melville
startling
subversive
culture
his
that Melville's
"classic"
of
creativity.
a veritable
status,
recast
and
him
attitudes
prevailing
and
insights
rhetoric
and "Bartleby" in
short fiction,
from
more
motifs,
the nature
discuss
students,
provides
students the actual forms,
antebellum
clearly
of many
college
in tune with
writer
however,
provides
and
realities,
in which Melville's
we
antebellum
popular
we
debates,
assume
meaning,
particular,
sentence
in the minds
death
vibrant
students
effectively?and
analysis
marketplace
most
the contexts
And by retrieving
voice,
story. By examining with
conventions
engages
"Bartleby"
context,
to examine more
be employed
?the
structure
that
practice
that the
to
clue
important
Placing
into
to the
A
of
and
as
instead
literary
a
tastes
of his day. Such new recoveries of a "classic" work go far in satisfying the student cry
for
and?most
interpretive
proofs,
to discover
for themselves
necessary
in Melville's
surface
celebrated
students
importantly?they
provide
assure
the artistry
that we
"lower
them
with
lurks
the
tools
the
beneath
layers."
1
When
Melville
turned to magazine writing
environments
distinct
literary
received
magazines
and
social,
some
aesthetic
in 1853, he participated
of
and Putnam's
Harper's Magazine
Monthly.
most
of Melville's
formulations
sophisticated
themes,
his
significantly
short
fiction
also
in the two
While
of
displays
the
both
political,
clearest
deference to the stylistic conventions that distinguished these monthlies. Some of the
author's best shorter works, including the stories collected in The Piazza Tales (1855),
were initially written for and published in Putnam's. "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story
ofWall Street," the first story that Melville submitted to Putnam's, demonstrates his
use
the heterogeneous
of
magazine.
The
narrative
deliberateness
available
style
of Melville's
practices
the
within
and his
keen
environment
literary
awareness
of
the
of
the contrast
ing magazine styles become clear in the type of fiction that he writes for Putnam's. The
started in 1853 as a critical commentary upon the times and as a direct
monthly
to the
political
contrast
conservatism
and
the
sentimental
rhetoric
of
Harper's
Magazine.
Rigorously
analytical, it appealed to a more intellectual, politically liberal, and thus
smaller audience that ranged from 2,000-20,000
subscribers. (Harper's had 100,000
The
readers.)
the most
tion,
editors
promised
trenchant thought,
and
of
experience"
to collect
"the
results
of
the
illustrated by whatever wealth
that American
writers
possess
acutest
observations,
and
of erudition, of imagina
("Editorial
Note,"
Jan.
1853).
By emphasizing the "trenchant thought" and "erudition," rather than just the popular
ity of their writers, the editors conveyed their high literary and political aspirations.
Sheila
197
Post-Lauria
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Putnam's
different
treated
social,
the non-partisan,
issues marked
Putnam's
social
and
political,
from
non-analytical
Since
fiction.
themes
literary
stance of
the
editors
from a perspective
markedly
its competitor.
A concern
for
to uncover
"charac
attempted
teristic life in the cities," fiction extended to the work place, business, and into the
home (Jan. 1853: 2). Passages such as the following portrayed the despair of the
industrial worker:
I knew
men
that
had
been
at work
hard
since
sunrise?since
daybreak?toiling heavily at labor that should not end until their lives
ended; confined in close and noisome places, in which the day was
never very bright, and their hopes grew daily darker. (Curtis 18)
Indeed, many stories discussed the plight of employees, a subject that Melville made
famous in "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story ofWall Street."4
? and one that
Perhaps the most significant difference
distinguishes Melville's
and Putnam's
Harper's
?a mode
of sentiment
in the
fiction
?lay
of writing,
editors'
attitudes
toward
to the editors,
according
that
the popular
rhetoric
to assuage
and to
tried
cover more
than it directly challenged and uncovered. Not restricted to the domestic
sphere*Harper's fiction dealt with social and even with political issues. Inequities in the
workplace, home, and society form a backdrop to theHarper's stories of the decade. Yet
writers do not focus upon the social problems they raise. Stressing the emotions over
sentimental
analysis,
in
fiction
refigured
Harper's
abuse,
suffering,
and
poverty,
exploi
tation into romantic portraits of pathos and beauty by disengaging characters from
their environments. Rather than grapple directly with timely issues, the fiction of
as thematic
them
employs
Harper's
material
that
to demonstrate
attempts
that
"difficul
ties are the tutors and monitors of men placed in their path for their best discipline and
development" (Jan. 1852: 212). Harper's stories emphasize the abilities of characters to
find contentment through the hardships they encounter by transforming social prob
as
lems
literary
and
acquiescence,
Writers
issues
for the magazine
contains
of
the moralistic
characters
fortunate
traditional
bystanders,
the misery
portray,
vividly
on
above
from
of
the
fiction,
type
nor do
they
culminating
narrators
offer
do
solutions.
not
ladder
explicitly
in a conventional
final
they
of
and
poverty
Rather,
the
from
spectator-narrators
status allows them to observe lower, less
themselves from the inevitable conclusions
of
toleration,
typically separate their tellers from the telling. Harper's
aloof
ranks of the upper classes. Their privileged
even
of
principles
nobility.
impoverished
fiction
sentimental
a celebration
into
success.
alienation,
Though
these
to, and
they allude
narrators
extricate
of their stories. Characteristically
express
resort
exclamation,
opinions
regarding
misspent
to a sentimental
response,
as in "The Chateau
R?gnier":
in this
lives,
usually
"May
he die in peace!" (Harper's, June 1853: 221-38). Such endings indirectly celebrate the
good will of the narrator at the expense of the unresolved social problems that the
stories
raise.
hegemonic
individual?the
with
Harper's
198
Through
this
style,
writers
values of individuality
successful
upon
emphasis
commitment
narrator.
the emotions
to
use
societal
and success. They
This
abstract
and values
of
upper-middle-class
issues
as a foil
to dramatize
the
focus upon and celebrate the
representation
the narrator
enabled
of
society
coupled
to support
writers
ideology.
College
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
of
By way
Putnam's
contrast,
editors
sentimental
rejected
as a tool
rhetoric
for
representing the times (Putnam's, Feb. 1854: 223). The sentimental style of Harper's
fiction, they argued, severs the link between social problems and the teller's emotional
response to them. By glossing over reality, Harper's writers highlighted abstracted senti
ment
the gentle,
the grieving,
anti
the beautiful."
The
painting
"only
through
a dissatisfaction
stance
sentimental
the
with
and
true,
"clear,
implies
consistently
a
of sentimental
and endorses
multi
prose
transparent"
writing
deliberately
ambiguous,
layered text (Feb. 1853: 77). Richly
to a
restricted
of
strategy
personal
symbolic language and a heterogenous
the
Melville?represented
style?not
o? Putnam's.
trademark
Melville carefully considered this stylistic approach and orientation when writing
for the monthly. By viewing "Bartleby, the Scrivener" within the context of Putnam's
practices, the modern reader gains insight into the structural and stylistic complexities
that
the author
contextual
relation
to
used
recovery
between
his
shape
the tale's
of
the
narrative
reader's
to the
response
characters.
central
story's
reestablishes
conventions
interpretive
and
narrative
method
style
the
of
the
This
fundamental
narrator.
this analytical approach can be appreciated most by students when they
participate directly in the contextual analysis. Providing students with their own
Harpe?s and Putnam's packets that include both editorial policies and representative tales
But
supplies
determine
students
with
his
innovations.
tools
necessary
to
This
firsthand
study
the
trace
the
author's
appropriations
materials
encourages
of primary
to
and
stu
dents to discover for themselves the craft and the artistry of literary writing.
2
common
The
stance
o? Putnam's
writers
sentimental
against
rhetoric
far
goes
in
accounting for the strategies that Melville employed in "Bartleby, the Scrivener," one
of his most stylistically challenging stories. In this tale, the author employs a sentimen
tal style as amethodological weapon against itself and, in doing so, reinforces Putnam's
editorial stance. Partially sentimental, this story portrays the devastating effects ofWall
Street upon those "pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn" individuals like
Bartleby, and yet the overall manner is more in keeping with the "mixed form" of
Putnam's than with the sentimentalism o?Harper's (Melville 19). Through his
depiction
of the methods of social involvement and retreat adopted by individuals in the work
place, Melville links his tale to the editorial concern of Putnam's for analyses of the
world
of work.
And
yet
the
author
goes
He
further.
conflates
and' his
own
?arguments
for
a narrative
style
that
rather
links,
concern
the magazine's
for the effects of industrialization upon the individual worker with
the magazine's ?
than
separates
(as
in
Harper's sentimental fiction) the teller and the telling. In other words, Melville depicts
the need for a narrative style that can adequately provide room for
oppositional,
and
minority,
and sometimes
alternative
voices
and
share
o?
oppressive?views
textual
equal
Harper's
conventional
the
space with
narrators.
authoritative?
Contextualizing Melville's stylistic strategies in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" pro
vides a deeper understanding of the powerful ?if
between the
ambiguous?relationship
narrator
and
Bartleby.
Indeed,
this
stylistic
context
is central
to
unraveling
lated stories that are represented by the paradigms of employer
/employee
subject that Melville skillfully creates in this work.
Sheila
the
interpo
and narrator/
199
Post-Lauria
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The
literal
narrator's
and
involvement
lawyer's
Wall
Street's
sentimental
intent
readers,
of
132-45).
InMelville's
paradigm
narrative
different
a means
of class
the
insights
concerns
examine
demands for a
into
extends
link
subjects,
to socioeconomic
of
relation
to
relations
a central
and
that modern
have
relations,
192-201; Gilmore
287; Rogin
ideologies of employer and employee serve
chronicle the conflicting
for
as
worker
examination
Melville's
his
tale
story:
the narrator's
tale of
by larger periodical marketplace
author-narrators
restricting
the
to both
the
cleverly employs magazine
individual
Melville's
respect,
classes
upon
the
as narrator
and
lawyer
a double
(Douglas 298; Franklin, "Herman Melville"
overlooked
as a
of
of writers
In this
style.
the
includes
as
role
this paradigm, Melville
exploitation
critically the exploitation
and
double
portrays
subject,
Bartleby,
his
and
Bartleby
employee
with
to his subject. Through
about
in his
relation
narrative
his
The
styles.
narrator's
as
role
his
limits
employer
social awareness. He involves himself in the work lives of his staff in order to demon
strate his own superior abilities in surviving within
the world of Wall Street by
wielding
While
over
authority
the other
Yet
others.
the narrator's
"with
acquiesce
employees
turns
"method"
submission,"
back
Bartleby
himself.
upon
not
"prefer[s]
to"
a
(Melville 20). The latter's behavior foregrounds the need for different type of social
involvement ? the survival of the individual caught within the rigidly structured finan
cial world?and
ultimately
discontented
Bartleby's
tragic
a different
extension
by
questions
narrative
the tale analyzes
and
Indeed,
style.
as an
to aid
in a
employer
position
as a narrator
to account
in a
for
position
the narrator's
"method"?both
like
and
employees
Bartleby
story.
foregrounds here alternative perspectives ?views
Melville
to the different
of narration.
modes
emphasizes
to
approaches
own
in his
method
who
And
narrative
method
he
reinforces
opening
and
brags
his
paragraph.
to the reader
that ultimately
relate
a narrator
theme
by creating
contrasts
narrator
The
he
how
could
the
a
provide
sentimental sketch: "If I pleased, [I] could relate divers histories, at which good
natured gentlemen might smile, and sentimental souls might weep" (Melville 13).
these
While
are not
here
souls"
and "sentimental
represent
gentlemen"
as Gilmore
narrator's
the
suggests
emphasis
(142),
narrative
his own
but rather upon
the readers,
approach
the general
concerns
"good-natured
or conventional
reader,
upon
and
and method
in relating his tale. Deliberately discarding the sentimental mode for his narration of
Bartleby, he consciously reserves it for the account of his own story. He proudly depicts
himself as calculating and conservative: "The late John Jacob Astor, a person little
given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point to
be prudence, my second method" (Melville 14). Method, of course, is a double tip-off:
the narrator's
methodical
to
approach
as well
Bartleby
as this
narrative
teller's
method
in his tale.
narrator
The
He
defines
his
a
perspective,
resembles
the
not
sentimentalizes
own
character
in
that the tale ultimately
style
narrators
of
detached
Harper's.
pattern of a story from the December
Story,"
a
lawyer
describes
an
own
narration.
story, but rather his
tones.
sentimental
To
the
represent
a narrator
creates
who
Melville
criticizes,
Bartleby's
sentimental
encounter
In
some
ways,
"Bartleby"
that
culminates
in
ultimate death of the client (Dec. 1852: 48-52). He foreshadows
200
the
the
follows
In "My Client's
1852 issue of this magazine.
disintegration
and
the eventual outcome
College
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
of
this
"He
individual:
doomed
visaged?and
distances
himself
clear
relationship
had been
to his
reacts
sensitive
remains
aloof,
his
client.
He
were
once
emotionally
the matter
thin
gray-haired,
"My Client's
of
Story"
a
retreats
from establishing
?
... we
almost
friends
constantly
companions
confession
moving
for
coolly
his sketch
Throughout
and unwilling
unsympathetic,
man:
the narrator
outset,
altogether having been friends" (48). Furthermore,
client's
to consider
proper
conscience"
(50).
the
"We
them:
intimate without
narrator
"It was
(48).
from
emotionally
between
a broken-down
seemed
From
cadaverous"
was
there
of
the
a
with
a
such
other's
to become
the
coldness:
chilling
as an over
thing
the narrator
decline,
involved.5
emotionally
The narrator of "Bartleby" also stresses his lack of involvement with others: "All
who know me, consider me an eminently safeman" (Melville 14). This lawyer engages
not in defending the rights of others: "I seldom . . . indulge in dangerous indignation
at wrongs and outrages" (Melville 14). He chooses rather "in the cool tranquility of a
to conduct
retreat"
snug
title-deeds"
"a
narrator,
the
narrators
in
business
snug
14). This
(Melville
rich men's
among
in "My Client's
and
Story,"
the controversial
clarifies
attorney
and mortgages
and
lawyer
the
tradition
of spectator
larger
motivations
behind
Melville's
tales
Harper's
bonds
link between Melville's
specific contextual
particular characterization of his narrator that have plagued what Dan McCall
recently called the "Bartleby Industry" (99).
so many
Like
the narrators
of
in
this
stories,
Harper's
teller
has
detaches
ultimately
himself from the lives of his more unfortunate employees. Preferring the walls of his
"
the narrator retreats behind a "folding
office to "what landscape painters call 'life,'
screen"
that
him
separates
from
his
staff.
screen
The
serves
as a
for
metaphor
the
distance of authority that enables him to demand submissive behavior from them
(Melville 18-19), and it also suggests the sentimental distancing devices of theHarper's
formula.
to
revisions
Melville's
the
story
his
sharpen
analysis
of
the
rhetorical
of
power
sentiment. By changing the "wasted" form of Bartleby from a Christlike figure
"stretched on a blanket" to a regressive fetal position, Melville shifts the emphasis from
the
actual
to
tragedy
the narrator's
To sentimentalize
of
own
the narrator's
would
authority
directly empathize with
Sanctification
of
this
the narrator
rhetoric,
the focal
the words
death
his
former
lament, as Hershel
The
employee
it.6
and
be to sanctify him at the expense
as narrator.
that he wields
respectability
The
narrator
reader
a portrait of Bartleby as a tragic victim ofWall
would
the
castigate
directly
narrator
since
Street.
as
he,
the
sentimental
deflects
and reduces
its
As
tragedy
Bartleby's
impact.
over
and maintains
narrative
control
and superiority
point
Uttering
of
to
be largely responsible for the tragedy. By extracting
employer, would
remains
reaction
the story of Bartleby would
a result,
his
he
subject.
from Job 3 ("With kings and counsellors") upon discovering
the
employee,
lawyer
chooses
rather
sadness,"
"superior
the
than
Parker has noted (163).
relates
his
intense
feelings
of
revulsion
towards
that
hearing
a man
like Bartleby "by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness" was forced to
work as a subordinate clerk in the dead letter office: "Dead letters! does it not sound
like dead men?"
(Melville 45). He does gain insight into Bartleby's "pallid
?
hopelessness"
too
late
to aid
this
employee,
but
not
too
late
to
provide
a
sympathetic
rendition of the tragedy (Melville 45). Even so, the lawyer retreats from his insight
Sheila
201
Post-Lauria
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
regarding deplorable working conditions and their detrimental effects upon workers,
assuming instead the conventional sentimental stance: "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"
(Melville 45).
Rather
out
the
than
this
console,
limitations
of
the narrator's
The
world.
see
We
relating his stories: the story of hisWall
within
retreat
final
sudden,
sentimentalism.
the narrator
of
the
of
irony
Street and the story of Bartleby's dissolution
account
lawyer's
of Wall
Street
Given
irreconcilable
the
stance
sentimental
of
this
must
the narrator
situation,
defend
abstracted sentiment.
his (in)actions by employing
The
results
com
the
chronicles
as it is constructed by
promises of individual self-respect that must occur in this world
the narrator.
It
points
in
method
disturbs.
narrator's
the
and
"method"
of
the
and
narrator,
by
the
implication
iswhat is at stake here. This central point of
popular practice of sentimental writing,
the tale is overlooked even by those critics who see the "Victorian sentimentality" of
the narrator (Brodwin 188), or, in McCalPs case, attack prevailing views of the
narrator's
"Victorian
gush"
The
(143).
narrator's
statement
ending
is no
"vague
sentimentality," as Allan Emery once argued (186). Rather, it is a deliberate, precise
sentimentality, and this is exactly the point that Melville raises by employing such
language.
This
retreat
sentimentalist
in "Bartleby,"
the beginning
perspective
at
wonder
and
of
of
the
explains
the story
narrator
what
appears
exactly
to
points
as
the
why
the
confines
structural
narrative
of
We
discordancies.
narrator
writes
the
of
story
Bartleby when he states clearly that "no materials exist for a full and satisfactory
biography of this man" (Melville 14). We look in vain ?as many students do ?for
explanations from the narrator of Bartleby's behavior. By reserving his explanation for
Bartleby's behavior for the ending rather than the beginning of the story where it
would have provided a psychological motivation ? and empathy?for
Bartleby, the
narrator deflects reader sympathy from Bartleby to himself. And, in turn, by con
the
structing
story
in this manner,
Melville
demonstrates
that his narrator's
sentimental
approach to narrative is a means of extracting himself from a highly challenging
situation that would necessitate an ideological change, something that this comfortable
narrator
is clearly
to consider.
unwilling
Melville's mixture of sentiment and social analysis serves dual functions in this
that occurs in the money-making
tale. It poignantly depicts the depersonalization
of
the stories of individuals like
short
while
sentimentalizing
stopping
professions,
Bartleby. At the same time, it sentimentally portrays the attempts of employers like the
narrator
to
ineffectuality
story ofWall
screen
of
aide
his
while
employees,
simultaneously
out
pointing
that
narrator's
in changing the nature of the work place. The story of Bartleby and the
Street conjoin through social critique and separate through the diffusing
sentiment.
3
The
context
be linked to the many
202
in the
recovered
narrative
ing the peculiar
of
uniqueness
"Bartleby,
above
structure,
the
Scrivener."
discussion
style,
The
and
provides
characterization
tale's
stylistic
for
ground
that contribute
solid
and
fine textual studies of the psychological
thematic
examin
to
bivalency
the
can
dualities between
College
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
the
narrator
and his
as well
subject,
as between
the
persona of Bartleby encourages challenging
and his
attorney
Just
employees.7
as the
the authority of the employer, Melville's
sentimental
of the narrator's
readers?in
this
style encourages
depiction
of the narrator
and criticize
the authority
students?to
and his method.
question
out
the symbiosis
between
and
teller
so, Melville
tale, narrator
points
doing
critical
case,
In
and
subject, and calls attention to his craft. In the end, examining "Bartleby" in light of
magazine conventions reveals how this tale goes far beyond the story of "Bartleby" and
even
the Scrivener."
"Bartleby,
out
It points
for
the modern
reader,
whose
interpretive
possibilities are limited by the critical orientation of textual editors, the multi-layered
weaving of social, literary, and aesthetic themes thatMelville so cleverly embedded in
his tale of Bartleby, the attorney, and the art of story-telling. Indeed, by providing the
reader with insight into the sophisticated craft and artistry of the author, contextual
analysis provides the interpretive proofs necessary to reaffirm "Bartleby's" rightful
place
the
within
canon.8
NOTES
established the term "other" in her remarkable study Sensational
^ane Tompkins
Designs.
D.
H.
Lawrence
coined
term
the
to
"classic"
the works
designate
of
canonical
antebellum writers in his provocative Studies inClassic American Literature.Among
notable
scholars
that
this
employ
are Matthiessen,
term
themost
and Barbour.
Bercovitch,
Smith,
2For the most recent criticism of employing new historicist methods for analyzing
(classic)
see
texts,
Bryant.
3The tale appeared in the November andDecember 1853 issues of themagazine. The
running header included only the first part of the story title, "Bartleby, the Scrivener,"
which
was
common
practice
in Putnam's,
but
the
title
page
of
both
segments
monthly
included the complete title.
4See also
"Our
Best
Society"
and
Tom
"Elegant
Dillar."
5Several popular shilling novels published during this time have been offered as
possible
sources
for "Bartleby,"
such
as James
A. Maitland's
The
Lawyer's
suggested
Story,
by Leon Howard and discussed by Bergmann. InNew York in Slices, asDavid S. Reynolds
has pointed out, the author portrays the rigidity ofWall Street and the individuals who
suffer
from
business
reversals.
However,
the sensational
not stylistically complement eitherMelville's
rhetoric
was
not
popular
with
Putnam's,
style
of George
Foster's
novel
does
style or his focus in "Bartleby." Sensationalist
as evidenced
in its condemnation
of Melville's
Pierre,
where the author successfully (though not always popularly) employed this style. See
Howard 208; Bergmann 432-36; and Reynolds 294.
6Melville Papers, Duyckinck Collection, New York Public Library. See also the note
on "Bartleby" in The Piazza Tales 575.
7Marcus 107-13; Smith 734-41; Guerard 1-14; Rogers 67-70; Keppler 115-20;
Bollas 401-11; Dillingham 31-32.
8Iwould like to thank Charlene Avallone, Lauren Berlant, Wai-chee Dimock, John
Ernest, Robert A. Ferguson, Kathleen McCormack, and David S. Reynolds for their
helpful
Sheila
comments
regarding
previous
drafts
of
this
essay.
203
Post-Lauria
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WORKS CITED
Barbour,
and Tom
James,
eds. Writing
Quirk,
the American
Classics.
U
Hill:
Chapel
of
North Carolina P, 1990.
Baym, Nina. "Melville's Quarrel with Fiction." PML^4 94 (1979): 903-23.
and Myra
Sacvan,
Bercovitch,
and Classic
Ideology
American
Literature.
Cam
1986.
"
Deitrich.
Johannes
Bergmann,
eds.
Jehlen,
bridge: Cambridge UP,
and The
'Bartleby'
Lawyer's
American
Story."
Literature
47
(1975): 432-36.
_.
Stories."
"Melville's
1986.
Greenwood,
A
toMelville
Companion
of
the Frontiers
Stanley. " "To
Scrivener.'
the Inscrutable.
Bartleby,
174-96.
"Melville's
John.
Bryant,
Ed.
John
Bryant.
Westport:
"Melville's Lost Self: Bartleby." American Imago 31 (1974): 401-11.
Bollas, Christopher.
Brodwin,
Studies.
241-78.
in
Crossing
Hamden:
Thomas
and
Manuscript
Typee
Melville's
Eternity:
Ed. M.
the Limits
the
'Bartleby,
1979.
Archon,
Inge.
of Historicism."
Modern
Lan
Jan.
1853:
guage Studies (1991): 3-10.
"The
Chateau
Curtis,
1853:
116-21.
June
Harper's
"Andrew
Cranberry:
Attorney
R?gnier."
William.
George
18-23.
at Law."
Putnam's
B. Melville's Short Fiction: 1853-1856. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1977.
Dillingham, William
178-84.
Douglas,
"Elegant
Ann.
The
Tom
Dillar."
Feminization
American
of
Putnam's
Culture.
1853:
May
Going
Louisiana
SUP,
Fisher,
H.
Franklin,
Bruce.
Melville:
in America
1976.
Ramparts,
_.
A.
Alfred
and
31 (1976): 170-87.
1850s.
the American
Baton
Artist
of
the Literary
and
the Worker's
Tradition.
World."
287-309.
T. American
Michael
Rouge:
Criti
Weapons
of
Palo Alto:
Rudich.
Ed. Norman
The Wake of theGods: Melville's Mythology. Stanford: Stanford UP,
Gilmore,
1977.
Knopf,
1977.
"Herman
cism: Marxism
Short Fiction
Under: Melville's
York:
"
'Bartleby,' NCF
Emery, Allan. "The Alternatives of Melville's
Marvin.
New
525-30.
Romanticism
and
the
Marketplace.
U
Chicago:
1963.
of Chicago
P,
1985.
Guerard, Albert J., ed. Stories of theDouble. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967.
Howard, Leon. Melville: A Biography. Berkeley: U of California P, 1951.
Keppler, C. F. The Literature of theSecond Self Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1972.
Paul.
Lauter,
D.
Lawrence,
Canons
H.
and Contexts.
Studies
in Classic
New
York:
American
Oxford
UP,
Literature.
1991.
London:
1924.
Heinemann,
Marcus, Mordecai. "Melville's Bartleby as a Psychological Double." College English 23
(1962): 365-68.
McCall, Dan. The Silence of Bartleby. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1989.
Melville,
Herman.
Other
Thomas
"My
Library,
Client's
O'Brien,
Prose
A Story
the Scrivener:
"Bartleby
1839-1860.
Pieces
Ed. Harrison
Tanselle,
1987.
Story."
Fitz-James.
and
others.
Evanston:
of Wall-Street."
Hayford,
Northwestern
The
Piazza
Tales
and
A.
Alma
UP
G.
MacDougall,
and The Newberry
13-45.
Dec.
1852: 48-52.
Harper's
"Our American
Authors:
Herman
Melville."
Putnam's
Feb.
1853:
73-78.
204
College
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Literature
"Our
Best
Putnam's
1853:
170-79.
Feb.
Society."
"
in
Hershel.
"The
Parker,
'Sequel'
'Bartleby.'
Bartleby
1979.
Hamden:
Archon,
Ed. M.
the Inscrutable.
Thomas
Inge.
Reynolds, David S. Beneath theAmerican Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in theAge of
Emerson andMelville. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1988. Harvard UP, 1989.
Rogers,
Robert.
A
Study
Psychoanalytic
of
the Double
in Literature.
Detroit:
Wayne
SUP,
1970.
Rogin, Michael Paul. SubversiveGenealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville. New
York: Alfred Knopf, 1983.
Smith,
Henry
Nash.
and
Democracy
New York: Oxford UP,
Smith,
Herbert
F.
"Melville's
theNovel:
Popular
Resistance
to Classic
American
Writers.
1978.
Master
in Chancery
and his Recalcitrant
Clerk."
American
Quarterly 17 (1965): 734-41.
Sheila
205
Post-Lauria
This content downloaded from 63.116.232.250 on Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:41:18 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions