All Astir

Abstract

In this special issue of “Extracts,” we feature the Melville Society’s Eighth International Conference, “Melville and Rome: Empire—Democracy— Belief—Art,” which was held at the Centro Studi Americani (June 22) and the Università di Roma–Sapienza (June 23–25), with a day-trip to Naples (June 26). More than ninety scholars from over a dozen nations participated. The splendid conference was organized by John Bryant (Hofstra University), Giorgio Mariani (Università di Roma–Sapienza), and Gordon Poole (Università degli studi l’Orientale, Napoli). As a record of the conference, we present the three keynote addresses by Dennis Berthold, Gordon Poole, and Leslie Marmon Silko; reports by Laura López Peña, Peter Riley, Elizabeth Schultz, and Jincai Yang; and a photo gallery. Videos from the Rome conference (and also the 2009 “Melville and the Mediterranean” conference in Jerusalem) can be viewed on the Society website (melvillesociety.org) under the “Media” tab. The Rome offerings include readings of Melville’s poem “In a Bye-Canal” by Gordon Poole (in English) and Susanna Poole (in Italian). Under the “Galleries” tab, you can find over ninety photos of the Rome conference. The videos from the 2009 and 2011 international conferences can be viewed on the Society’s new YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMelvilleSociety. We also include abstracts for the papers given at three panels—“New Approaches to Melville,” “Clarel and Beyond,” and “Battle-Pieces”—at the American Literature Association Conference, held last May in Boston. The Melville Society Cultural Project team (Jennifer Baker, Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Wyn Kelley, Timothy Marr, Christopher Sten, and Robert K. Wallace) met in New Bedford in July for a round of crucial meetings focused on a productive new stage in the MSCP’s relationship with the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The Museum recently lost federal funding for many of its educational programs and has gone through a period of financial cuts and restructuring. Nevertheless, they embarked on an ambitious series of Melvillerelated events this past fall and winter, under the leadership of President James Russell and Vice President of Education and Programming James Lopes. Called Moby!, the series began on October 19 with Nathaniel Philbrick delivering a lecture on his recent book, Why Read Moby-Dick? In a partnership between the museum and the Zeiterion Performance Center in New Bedford, the Gare St. Lazare Players of Ireland presented a theatrical performance of Moby-Dick on November 3–5. The Mayor of Youghal, County Cork, in Ireland, where John Huston’s 1956 Moby Dick was filmed, introduced the play as well as a