Herman Melville’s Historical Conception in Pierre, Or the Ambiguities :The Duplicity of American Thought and the Silenced = Herman Melville’s Historical Conception in Pierre, Or the Ambiguities :The Duplicity of American Thought and the Silenced

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The objective of this research is to analyze how Herman Melville's perception on American history and thought are expressed in his Pierre; or, the Ambiguities. As an American-made individual, Pierre’s tragedy is caused not only by a personal fault stemming from his ignorance, but also by a social cause as well, which comes from the duplicity of American thought. Based on the analysis of the Declaration of Independence as a representative document revealing the duplicity of American history and thought, I tried to examine Melville's satirical response to the duality of American thought represented by the parody of Saddle Meadows and the Glendinning family, exaggerated rhetoric of the main characters, and multiple-layered meaning of the narrative.
Consequently, Pierre's irrational thought and act, which is done being blinded Transcendentalist thought and finally leads him to the tragic fate, can be read as Pierre's effort to create his own fiction throughout the narrative; this American-made individual makes his own fiction and myth, however fails. And directly related to this, Pierre's obsessive pursuit toward the absolute truth, which does not exist, also might be read as a result of fictitiousness made by him.
Melville's recognition of the duplicity and ironies in American history in Pierre might be seen as his doubt and answer to the national conflict of America in the nineteenth century; also to a question of what Americanness is, which is metaphorically represented as the characteristic of Saddle Meadows and brings out an individual