Analysis Of Benito Cerreno
As an undergraduate student, if I were to approach one of my professors and say, “my dog ate my homework,” my professor, who may be have heard too many excuses in his lifetime, may think that I was attempting to make an excuse for not doing my assigned work. However, another student, standing next to me, in the same classroom, who may believe that such an excuse would be too silly to be true, may think I am attempting to tell a funny anecdote. So how would one determine what is the correct interpretation of the original statement? Stanley Fish, in his 1980 book titled Is There a Text in this Class, addresses this issue. In reading this essay, one will be able to understand better the literary theories Stanley Fish championed, how that same
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In the 1850’s, the slavery of blacks must have been on the forefront of Melville’s mind when he wrote the story, based on real events. When critics attempt to interpret his tale, one of the problems they are confronted with is that there is not a lot of documentation on Melville’s opinions on slavery or race. Nevertheless, Fish and other post-structuralist and reader-response critics would not be concerned with Melville’s point of view, as he is more concerned with the readers own interpretation of the text. Fish would argue that each interpretation, whether it be from an individual or from the context of an interpretive community, is an equally valid interpretation of his work. When applying post-structuralism to “Benito Cereno,” a literary critic would find a point in the story assumed to be, by the general academic community, self-evident and deconstruct the meaning by reading the text against the grain, and by using the concept of a decentered universe, the critic would be able to explain how the assumptions of the communities are incorrect, as not everyone has that same vantage point in which to view story. An example of this would be to look at the trend in today’s criticisms of “Benito Cereno,” and, realizing most people see the story about Babo and the slaves were mistreated and had the right to revolt, the post-structuralist would deconstruct the heroism of the slave mutiny and instead focus on the fact that the captain was betrayed by someone who, as close as a slave runner could be, was a
In the 1850’s, the slavery of blacks must have been on the forefront of Melville’s mind when he wrote the story, based on real events. When critics attempt to interpret his tale, one of the problems they are confronted with is that there is not a lot of documentation on Melville’s opinions on slavery or race. Nevertheless, Fish and other post-structuralist and reader-response critics would not be concerned with Melville’s point of view, as he is more concerned with the readers own interpretation of the text. Fish would argue that each interpretation, whether it be from an individual or from the context of an interpretive community, is an equally valid interpretation of his work. When applying post-structuralism to “Benito Cereno,” a literary critic would find a point in the story assumed to be, by the general academic community, self-evident and deconstruct the meaning by reading the text against the grain, and by using the concept of a decentered universe, the critic would be able to explain how the assumptions of the communities are incorrect, as not everyone has that same vantage point in which to view story. An example of this would be to look at the trend in today’s criticisms of “Benito Cereno,” and, realizing most people see the story about Babo and the slaves were mistreated and had the right to revolt, the post-structuralist would deconstruct the heroism of the slave mutiny and instead focus on the fact that the captain was betrayed by someone who, as close as a slave runner could be, was a