Melville’s (Dis)Orders

Paweł Jędrzejko is Associate Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, and a faculty member in the PhD Programme in Studies in English Literatures, Language, and Translation at Sapienza University of Rome. His research spans nineteenth-century American literature, literary and cultural theory, comparative studies, and translation philosophy, with particular emphasis on Herman Melville, dialogic ethics, and the philosophy of friendship. He is the author of the first monographs on Herman Melville published in Polish and has co-edited numerous international volumes and journal issues devoted to American literature and cultural theory. He is a co-author of Atmospheric Health, Nature, and Well-being: Towards a Philosophy of the Garden (Routledge, 2025). He served as President of the International American Studies Association (2021–2023), is Co-Founder and Co–Editor-in-Chief of the Review of International American Studies, and has held ministerial and international advisory appointments in higher education policy, open access, and academic governance.John T. Matteson is Distinguished Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. He holds an A.B. in history from Princeton University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. His scholarship focuses on nineteenth-century American literature, intellectual history, and the intersections of literary, moral, and legal thought. He is the author of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, which received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and The Lives of Margaret Fuller, awarded the 2012 Ann M. Sperber Prize for Best Biography of a Journalist, as well as A Worse Place than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation (2021). He has published widely in leading journals, including Leviathan, New England Quarterly, and Harvard Theological Review, and is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

• Exposition, or On the Truth of Things 1 Problematizing Prudence, Bordering Blasphemy: Lawyerly Reflections in Melville’s Fiction John MattesonAbner Kneeland, Lemuel Shaw, and American Blasphemy Brown v. Kendall and the Triumph of Prudence Prudence and Blasphemy in Moby-Dick Moby-Dick and the Problem of Democracy Law, Codification, and the Escape from Orthodoxy Melville’s Quarrel with Prudence in Moby-Dick Moby-Dick and Blasphemy Moby-Dick as a Blasphemous Text Pierre and Prudence “Bartleby”: The Quarrel with Prudence Rejoined Imprudence Triumphant: “The Lightning-Rod Man” 2 “The justest of all views”: To Mardi and Beyond with Agnes D. Cannon Paweł Jędrzejko Melville’s Concept of the Artist The Poet as Entertainer The Poet as Mouthpiece The Poet as Interpreter of Ideas and Objects The Poet as a Visionary The Poet as Savior The Poet as Mythmaker Marginalia Coda Dialogue I: Transcendence / Existence 3 “In the Dust of Wisdom”: Embracing Transcendence John Matteson 4 “And I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee”: Embracing Annihilation Paweł JędrzejkoDialogue II: To Be or Not To Be 5 “Insurrection on the Lonely Billows”: Ocean and Freedom (A Prologue by way of Douglass) John Matteson6 On Voyaging and Bildung (The Case of Wellingborough/Redburn) Paweł JędrzejkoInnocence. Pro-Visions The Voyage: Towards Experience Farewell, Dear Delusion: Toward Post-Visions Coda 7 “Accursed Jacket That Thou Art”: The Self at Stake Paweł JędrzejkoWhite-Jacket: A Mirage of Familiarity Once a Character … Either/Or: Existence/Being Transcending the White Jacket A Self. To Be Defined… 8 “The Little Lower Layer”: Anxiety and the Courage to Be in Moby-Dick John MattesonTillich and Anxiety: An Overview Courage through Participation: Ishmael Courage and Radical Free Will: Ahab Courage Through Faith: Starbuck Conclusion Dialogue III: Cannibalism / Capitalism 9 “Nantucket Sleigh Ride,” or On the Value of Photo/Sensitivity Paweł Jędrzejko 10 Adding "Insult to Injury”: On Cannibalistic Appetites and Indigestion Paweł Jędrzejko The Sea-DriveThe Feast of Victory The Appetite for Status Ocean’s Cannibalism 11 “Duty and Profit Hand in Hand”: Melville, Whaling, and the Failure of Heroic Materialism John Matteson Dialogue IV: Ironies / Tragedies 12 “Unfathomable Cravings” and “Enchanted Heysts”: The Ironic Rescuer in Pierre and Victory John Matteson 13 Pip, the Intolerable Third Paweł Jędrzejko