Herman Melville

It was as a sailor that Herman Melville was identified by his literary contemporaries in the 19th century. Throughout his life, he both fought against and embraced his sailor identity. This chapter investigates Melville’s time at sea through primary documents, including crew-lists, desertion certificates, newspaper articles, letters, and his three extant journals. Melville emerged from his four years at sea as a superb storyteller. The orality of his storytelling continues even as it is transformed into written texts. As he shifted from oral retelling to literary creation, many of the other literary sources on which he drew were likewise rooted in spoken language best experienced as heard not read: the plays of Shakespeare, the poetry of Milton, the Bible, sermons. This chapter investigates the complex intersection of identity and performativity, drawing on the work of John Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962), and the scholars who came in his wake. Melville delineates the performative quality inherent in the role of “sailor,” treating cannibalism, sexuality, tattooing, and other transgressions as part of a distinct sailor identity.