『베니토 세레노』의 다층적 서사와 체제적 인종주의

Abstract

This paper examines how Herman Melville's Benito Cereno is composed of interconnected multi-layered narratives, and considers the artistic and discursive effects they lead to when juxtaposed or combined with one another. In the process the paper pays close attention to Melville’s extraordinary ways of shaping characters with different perspectives of their own, and of utilizing delicately modulated narrative forms and heterogenous texts. Though all of these elements contribute to the layered nature of the work, Captain Delano’s characteristic self-deception, along with his free indirect speech, has been highlighted. Special emphasis is also put on Captain Cereno’s lived experience of inversion from master to slave in terms of ontology. In Benito Cereno Melville is concerned less with exposing the specific social horrors of slavery and racism than with revealing their foundational deception, thereby making it possible to think about how ideologies of slavery and racism operate both within both living individuals and the global system of capitalism. Most importantly, Melville's integrating art dealing with such deep-rooted systemic racism obliquely through the multi-layered narratives requires not only literary but also historical thoughts and imaginations. In conclusion, we can explore through multi-layered narratives in the novella Melville’s prescience about the character of the post-slavery age, which perpetuates systemic racism in the future in one way or another.