Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 164) Heartdrum bound by the extreme and

bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could

Once we learn the reasons behind caste and see the often heartbreaking effects

Kinsbruner describes residential patterns

and poetic style

Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 164) Heartdrum bound by the extreme andBy examining the unique problems that blackness signifies in Moby Dick, Pierre, Benito Cereno," and "The Encantadas," Christopher Freeburg analyzes how Herman Melville grapples with the social realities of racial difference in nineteenth century America. Where Melville's critics typically read blackness as either a metaphor for the haunting power of slavery or an allegory of moral evil, Freeburg asserts that blackness functions as the site where