Traces of Melville are everywhere these days: in fiction, opera, performance pieces, mixed media, visual art, online mashups, even emoji translations. The Melville Effect explores this phenomenon by examining the unparalleled number of contemporary artists who are channeling Melville: either as source of inspiration, launching point, presiding muse, artistic co-conspirator, or spur for self-critique.
Asking not only why this once-forgotten yet presciently innovative creator has emerged as the nexus for such creative fervor, but why now, this book suggests that contemporary artistic experiments, especially in mixed media, enjoy an inherent connection to Melville’s aesthetics: his heady mingling of genres and borrowings from popular and high culture alike anticipate the shifting horizons of art in our own moment—a moment increasingly shaped by new forms of media, multimedia, and digital technology as well by as new conceptions of audience and authorship.
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