Articles to Help Us Understand Benito Cereno

Go to the Sprague Library Home Page.   Then go to "Articles and Databases" and click on "Databases"

In the list of databases, go down to "Ebsco Academic Search Complete" and "MLA (Modern Language Association Bibliography)".

These are on-line bibliographies of articles and reviews on many subjects. You can get the full text of some of these articles.

Here is a list of the articles on Benito Cereno which I have found one or several of these sites. There are many others.

1. Stolen flesh, borrowed fresh: Herman Melville's Benito Cereno deposition. By: Anderson, Mark C.; Canadian Review of American Studies, 1998, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p61

2. Fixing meaning: Babo as sign in `Benito Cereno.' By: Dooley, Reinhold J.; ATQ, Mar95, Vol. 9 Issue 1, p41

3. The gaze of history in `Benito Cereno'. By: Pahl, Dennis; Studies in Short Fiction, Spring95, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p171,

4. Dusky comments of silence: Language, race, and Herman Melville's `Benito Cereno.' By: Jones, Gavin; Studies in Short Fiction, Winter95, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p39,

5. The idea of nature in Benito Cereno. By: Martin, Terry J.; Studies in Short Fiction, Spring93, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p161

The significant silence of race: La Cousine Bette and `Benito Cereno.' By: Colatrella, Carol; Comparative Literature, Summer94, Vol. 46 Issue 3, p240

Yet more:

1. Madness and mastery in Melville's "Benito Cereno." (Herman Melville) Benjamin D. Reiss. Criticism Wntr 1996 v38 n1 p115

2. Voicing slavery through silence: narrative mutiny in Melville's Benito Cereno. (Herman Melville) John Haegert. Mosaic (Winnipeg) Spring 1993 v26 n2 p21

3. The narrator's dilemma in "Bartleby the Scrivener": The excellently illustrated re-statement of a problem Studies in Short Fiction; Newberry; Spring 1997; Todd F Davis;

4. Madness and mastery in Melville's "Benito Cereno"; Reiss, Benjamin; Criticism, Detroit; Winter 1996; Vol. 38, Iss. 1; pg. 115,

5. Reconsideration: Teaching in the multiracial classroom: Reconsidering Melville's "Benito Cereno" MELUS; Los Angeles; Spring 1994; Levine, Robert S;

I have numbered these articles for our convenience.

Your Reading Assignment:

• Pick one article preceded by a number which corresponds to your group number, 1 through 4..
• Print the article out. Bring it to class.

Your Writing Assignment:

• Write a 300 - 400 word summary of the article.
• In an extra paragraph at the end, outline two or three points in the article which you found to be the most helpful to you in understanding _Benito Cereno_.

NOTE: You can get access to these articles on-line only if you are connected to the Internet through Montclair State's netword.

• Email your assignment to me and to your group.
• BRING A PRINTED-OUT VERSION OF THE ARTICLE YOU WROTE ABOUT TO CLASS WITH YOU. I will check.