An essay on Melville’s enormously long poem, Clarel, using some of my thoughts on nineteenth-century faith and poetry. I focus on the lyrical episodes that punctuate this epic poem, where I suggest an emotional and visceral faithfulness persists through the poem’s larger sense of arid skepticism.
Rhian Williams, “‘Learning, unlearning, word by word”: feeling faith in Melville’s Clarel.’ In: Arsic, B. and Evans, K.L. (eds.), Melville’s Philosophies. Bloomsbury Academic: New York (2017), pp. 175-197
Rhian Williams 