Surrounding Infinite of Things': The Object Life of Redburn and MOOOby-Dick​​

Christopher Castiglia's paper begins with the observation that Redburn is almost entirely devoid of plot and is, instead, a novel of descriptions.  But objects in Redburn are far from passive material for human... [ view full abstract ]

Christopher Castiglia's paper begins with the observation that Redburn is almost entirely devoid of plot and is, instead, a novel of descriptions.  But objects in Redburn are far from passive material for human description; they are actors. This paper will argue that the plot of Redburn involves the agency of things, beginning with Redburn’s opening description of the glass ship, which acts so violently on the boy’s emotions that it propels the rest of the novel, as Redburn is moved, physically and emotionally, from object to object. Melville’s project in Redburn might be a very contemporary experiment in a post-human novel, where the agencies and assemblages of objects form narrative trajectories in which humans are essentially irrelevant. A similar dynamic occurs in parts of Moby-Dick, where Ishmael repeatedly struggles, even in the midst of the most dramatic human adventures, with the thinginess of humans, primarily Ahab’s prosthetic leg.  Through theories of materialism and object-oriented ontology, it will make a case for viewing Melville’s extended experiment in what fiction might be if the “other” humans are not human at all, but things.