Exotic Bodies in Melville's "Typee"

  1. López Liquete, María Felisa
Libro:
Proceedings from the 31st AEDEAN Conference: [electronic resource]
  1. Lorenzo Modia, María Jesús (ed. lit.)
  2. Alonso Giráldez, José Miguel (ed. lit.)
  3. Amenedo Costa, Mónica (ed. lit.)
  4. Cabarcos-Traseira, María J. (ed. lit.)
  5. Lasa Álvarez, Begoña (ed. lit.)

Editorial: Servizo de Publicacións ; Universidade da Coruña

ISBN: 978-84-9749-278-2

Año de publicación: 2008

Páginas: 859-868

Congreso: Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos. Congreso (31. 2007. A Coruña)

Tipo: Aportación congreso

Resumen

Not only has the body been instrumental to (post)colonial discourses of various kinds. It is also a crucial site for representation and control, as well as prime means of developing and reinforcing prejudices against specific groups. It is my intention to examine the ways in which the "visual" and textual intrusion of "exotic" bodies have challenged or confirmed inherited or traditional consideration regarding the body. I will argue that, at least in the case of Melville's work, readers perceive an evolution from the use of exotic/colonial bodies to undermine and criticise "dominant" or "hegemonic" perceptions and values of the western body to a vision in which the colonial exotic body is valued on its own.