Measuring the Limits of the Self: Herman Melville’s White-Jacket

The Seminari Filosofia i Gènere-ADHUC organizes the 30th Laboratori de Tesi. In this new session, PhD student Arturo Corujo (ADHUC-Universitat de Barcelona) will present the work he is carrying out for the thesis project Measuring the Limits of the Self: Herman Melville’s White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War as a Body Narrative, under the direction of Rodrigo Andrés (ADHUC-Universitat de Barcelona) and Isabel González (Universidad de La Laguna). In this research, Corujo aims to demonstrate that the novel White-Jacket (1850) is a fundamental text for understanding the passage from Melville’s first autobiographical novels to his later works of fiction. The research is divided into three thematic axes: the domestic confinement of the ship, the deterritorialised temporalities of the movable spaces at sea and, finally, the problematic link between the narrator and his jacket. White-Jacket is an indispensable text for understanding the passage from introspection and self-enclosure to reflection and the celebration of thinking oneself in the world and with an Other.

See the diptych.