Melville: American Shakespeare with David Greven

Join us for a talk on one of America's greatest writers. The talk is included in entry to the Philadelphia Rare Book and Print Fair.

About the Talk:

Herman Melville's work underwent a profound transformation when he rediscovered Shakespeare's works at the end of the 1840s. The results of this deep immersion include the creation of, arguably, the greatest American novel, Moby Dick: Or, The Whale, which brims with references to King Lear, Macbeth, and other Shakespeare works. This talk explores the depths of Melville's identification and rivalry with the Bard, the search for an authentic national genius and the contentious importance of Shakespeare's example to the creation of a distinctively American literary art.

About the Speaker:

David Greven is Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. Greven specializes in both nineteenth-century American literature and Hollywood film. His books include All the Devils Are Here: American Romanticism and Literary Influence (University of Virginia Press, 2024), Intimate Violence: Hitchcock, Sex, and Queer Theory (Oxford University Press, 2017), Gender Protest and Same-Sex Desire in Antebellum American Literature (Routledge, 2016), The Fragility of Manhood: Hawthorne, Freud, and the Politics of Gender (The Ohio State University Press, 2012), Representations of Femininity in American Genre Cinema (Palgrave, 2011), and Men Beyond Desire: Manhood, Sex, and Violation in American Literature (Palgrave , 2005). He is currently writing a book under contract with Oxford University Press on Hitchcock's films of the Fifties and American Gothic literature.

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