ENGLISH 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Scrivener, Herman Melville, Critical Inquiry
2 Feb 2017
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Bartleby, the scrivener: a story of wall street . Bartleby is a mysterious character, described as inscrutable, doesn"t know what to make of. What do we relate to the story in order to understand. In what ways does bartleby not work: literal: a scrivener who doesn"t write: The next day i noticed that bartleby did nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery. Upon asking him why he did not write, he said that he had decided upon doing no more writing. Why, how now? what next? exclaimed i, do no more writing? . Do you not see for yourself? he indifferently replied. (61: a human subject who refuses agency doesn"t participate in the field of intention and action: Refuses to participate in the field of intention and action. Never gets works up or asserts himself. Will you, or will you not, quit me? i now demanded in a sudden passion, advancing close to him.
