Introduction: Melville’s Third Century

Abstract As we begin the third century after Melville’s birth and the second century of Melville studies, the Oxford Handbook of Herman Melville aims to reintroduce readers to a writer whom they already know well by reexamining Melville’s corpus—the novels, short prose, and poetry—in light of the diversity and vibrancy of global Melville scholarship today. The introduction to the collection situates the critical interventions of its thirty-eight contributors thematically and in relation to the broader field of Melville studies. It details the structure of the Handbook and its key investments in terms of critical and textual histories; sexualities and genders; Indigeneities and colonialisms; races and racializations; politics and economics; and histories; ecologies and energies; aesthetics and poetics; and philosophies.