From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth: the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor"

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Standard

From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth : the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor". / Andersen, Iben Engelhardt.

I: Textual Practice, Bind 36, Nr. 1, 2022, s. 158-178.

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Harvard

Andersen, IE 2022, 'From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth: the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor"', Textual Practice, bind 36, nr. 1, s. 158-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944

APA

Andersen, I. E. (2022). From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth: the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor". Textual Practice, 36(1), 158-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944

Vancouver

Andersen IE. From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth: the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor". Textual Practice. 2022;36(1):158-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944

Author

Andersen, Iben Engelhardt. / From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth : the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor". I: Textual Practice. 2022 ; Bind 36, Nr. 1. s. 158-178.

Bibtex

@article{32bd3e9714eb40699608c06f9f473d28,
title = "From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth: the material force of innocence in Herman Melville{\textquoteright}s {"}Billy Budd, Sailor{"}",
abstract = "Herman Melville's {"}Billy Budd, Sailor{"} is a novel about war and erotic exploitation in which Billy Budd becomes the centre of the affective management aboard the war ship. Against the reading of his allegorical status as something that pertains to his pre-sociality, this essay reads the allegorical personification of goodness as a work of 'practical abstraction' in a Marxist sense. It argues that Billy{\textquoteright}s 'fall into story' takes place at the moment when he, like a cute commodity, is exchanged between the representatives of the merchant ship and the war ship, and, using Sianne Ngai's work on aesthetic categories, investigates how he, as a cute soldier body evokes ambiguous feelings of empathy and aggression. Comparing Billy{\textquoteright}s abstract work to Rob Halpern's contemporary war poetry it discusses how queer affect is curbed to nation binding purposes. Billy's tragic flaw – his stutter – does not confirm an 'absolute innocence,' but provokes a discussion of how abstractions of good and evil are put to practical use in contemporary war efforts and how the young, American teenager is at the centre of such imagery. ",
keywords = "Faculty of Humanities, {"}Billy Budd{"}; youth; tragedy; cuteness; {"}Music for Porn{"}",
author = "Andersen, {Iben Engelhardt}",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944",
language = "English",
volume = "36",
pages = "158--178",
journal = "Textual Practice",
issn = "0950-236X",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - From Handsome Sailor to Cute Youth

T2 - the material force of innocence in Herman Melville’s "Billy Budd, Sailor"

AU - Andersen, Iben Engelhardt

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Herman Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor" is a novel about war and erotic exploitation in which Billy Budd becomes the centre of the affective management aboard the war ship. Against the reading of his allegorical status as something that pertains to his pre-sociality, this essay reads the allegorical personification of goodness as a work of 'practical abstraction' in a Marxist sense. It argues that Billy’s 'fall into story' takes place at the moment when he, like a cute commodity, is exchanged between the representatives of the merchant ship and the war ship, and, using Sianne Ngai's work on aesthetic categories, investigates how he, as a cute soldier body evokes ambiguous feelings of empathy and aggression. Comparing Billy’s abstract work to Rob Halpern's contemporary war poetry it discusses how queer affect is curbed to nation binding purposes. Billy's tragic flaw – his stutter – does not confirm an 'absolute innocence,' but provokes a discussion of how abstractions of good and evil are put to practical use in contemporary war efforts and how the young, American teenager is at the centre of such imagery.

AB - Herman Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor" is a novel about war and erotic exploitation in which Billy Budd becomes the centre of the affective management aboard the war ship. Against the reading of his allegorical status as something that pertains to his pre-sociality, this essay reads the allegorical personification of goodness as a work of 'practical abstraction' in a Marxist sense. It argues that Billy’s 'fall into story' takes place at the moment when he, like a cute commodity, is exchanged between the representatives of the merchant ship and the war ship, and, using Sianne Ngai's work on aesthetic categories, investigates how he, as a cute soldier body evokes ambiguous feelings of empathy and aggression. Comparing Billy’s abstract work to Rob Halpern's contemporary war poetry it discusses how queer affect is curbed to nation binding purposes. Billy's tragic flaw – his stutter – does not confirm an 'absolute innocence,' but provokes a discussion of how abstractions of good and evil are put to practical use in contemporary war efforts and how the young, American teenager is at the centre of such imagery.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - "Billy Budd"; youth; tragedy; cuteness; "Music for Porn"

U2 - 10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944

DO - 10.1080/0950236X.2020.1839944

M3 - Journal article

VL - 36

SP - 158

EP - 178

JO - Textual Practice

JF - Textual Practice

SN - 0950-236X

IS - 1

ER -

ID: 241901533