The actor-network in Herman Melville’s ‘The Apple-Tree Table’

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the actor-network in Herman Melville’s ‘The Apple-Tree Table or Original Spiritual Manifestations’ and argues that the agency of the nonhuman helps human beings to reshape their recognition of the world. In the story, when the narrator comes to the garret which is dominated by animals and things, he encounters a nonhuman-centred world. The movement of the apple-tree table from the garret to the parlour guides the family to experience the descent of anthropocentrism. Then the narrator and his family not only sense the agency of both the table and the bug but also form a network with them. Finally, they are able to think beyond anthropocentrism, thus reconstructing their cognition of the world.