All Astir

Abstract

All Astir Our New World’s worldly wit so shrewd Lacks the Semitic reverent mood, Unworldly—hardly may confer Fitness for just interpreter Of Palestine. Clarel 1.1.92–6 M elville’s title, Clarel: A Poem and a Pilgrimage, aptly describes the concerns of the Melville Society’s seventh international conference, which took place in Jerusalem June 17–21, 2009. Members and scholars of all stripes journeyed to discuss a poem (and much more). But the gathering was also a pilgrimage for those who came to see the world Melville observed so cogently in 1857 and pondered for decades thereafter. As we discovered, a brief sojourn “hardly may confer” the wisdom needed for understanding Melville’s Palestine or the contested lands of today. For some, North American “worldly wit” failed in the face of intractable political crises, a harsh desert environment of breathtaking beauty, and a city whose “thronged streets astir” challenged conventional assumptions. Co-chairs Basem Ra’ad, Hilton Obenzinger, and Timothy Marr nevertheless created a congenial space for discussion at the École Biblique, organized countless festive meals, and led splendid tours through ancient and modern sites in and around Jerusalem and in Jordan. We will offer a full report on this superb conference, with photographs and samplings of keynotes, panels, and excursions, in Leviathan 12.1, our issue of Spring 2010. For anyone who cannot wait that long and would like to see evidence of the joyful confluence of Melville scholars, young and seasoned, in what Melville called the Holy Land, we draw your attention to this link: http://www.youtube.com/view play list?p=3858ED79E9C67595. When members of the conference visited Jericho on the date of Walter Bezanson’s ninetyseventh birthday, someone got the bright idea of conveying affectionate greetings to the person without whose work the study of Clarel and the conference itself are unimaginable. Even the video clips cannot convey, however, the depth of gratitude for Walter’s groundbreaking scholarship expressed in paper after paper presented at the gatherings in Jerusalem. In other Melville-related news, the American Literature Association met in Boston in May, and we are pleased to present abstracts and summaries from not one but two events: the Melville Society panel chaired by Maurice Lee (Boston University), called “Melville and the End(s) of Philosophy”; and a C 2009 The Authors Journal compilation C 2009 The Melville Society and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 116 L E V I A T H A N A J O U R N A L O F M E L V I L L E S T U D I E S A L L A S T I R roundtable discussion chaired by Joseph Fruscione (Georgetown University, George Washington University), titled “‘Past, Present, and Future Seemed One’: Approaches to Teaching Melville.” The Melville Society Cultural Project met in New Bedford, MA for the Melville Birthday Lecture on July 30. This year’s speaker was D. Graham Burnett (Princeton University), whose talk addressed issues explored in his recent book, Trying Leviathan: The Nineteenth-Century New York Court Case That Put the Whale on Trial and Challenged the Order of Nature. We will present a fuller report on the lecture, the Melville Society Archive Fellowship, and new developments at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in our next issue. The MLA convention meets in Philadelphia this year from December 27–30. The Melville Society panel, chaired by Peter Norberg (St. Joseph’s University), features “Herman Melville: A Writer and His Books.” The papers include Dennis Berthold (Texas A & M University) speaking on “‘Mute Marbles’: Roman Aesthetics in the Poetry”; Shelley Jarenski (University of Michigan, Dearborn) on “‘Secret[s] published in a portrait ’: Melville’s Disruptive Visual Aesthetics in Pierre”; Ida Rothschild (Boston University) on “Melville’s ‘Mousetrap’: Using Shakespeare to Unmask Manifest Destiny in Moby-Dick”: and Brian Yothers (University of Texas at El Paso) on “‘Crack’d Archangel’: Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici, the Bible, and Religious Difference in Melville Fiction and Poetry.” For details about the Melville Society business meeting and dinner, please write Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (maryk.bercawedwards@mysticseaport.org) or Joseph Fruscione (jf284@georgetown.edu). For links to these individuals and MLA...