(NOTE: With all PDF files, right-click on the link to download, left-click to open in your browser)
Make sure you have read "BtS" very carefully. Please use this text, PDF'd so that we all have the same page numbers. Print it out and bring it to class.
Read "From Wall Street to Astor Place: Historicizing Melville's Bartleby", by Barbara Foley (Rutgers / Newark).
Foley uses historical research to try to demonstrate that:
If Bartleby does not depict class struggle directly, it is, as David Kuebrich has pointed out, very much about ideological struggle as well as alienation; indeed, the conflict between Bartleby and his boss cannot be understood apart from the contemporaneous discourse about class polarization.
Outline Foley's argument, referring to what you believe to be her main documents of historical evidence.
Explain what is specifically "Marxist" about this essay.
In a final paragraph, explain what benefits this kind of approach has in helping us understand Melville's enigmatic Bartleby.
Please write 300-350 words, or a bit more, but very thoughtfully, please - quality more than quantity. Email to me and to your group.
NOTE: DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR PRINTED-OUT TEXT OF "Bartleby the Scrivener" TO CLASS.
DOWNLOAD THE FOLEY ARTICLE "FROM WALL STREET TO ASTOR PLACE" so that it is ON your computer -- in case the Internet is slow.