Melville's Israel Potter: History as Fiction and Fiction as History

FAIN: FT-12066-74

Dolores W. Frese
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN 46556-4635)

To analyze historical and fictive modes in Melville's Israel Potter. by closely considering Melville's inventions and expansion on his documentary source--a pamphlet circulated in 1824 detailing the unsuccessful pension claims of a Revolutionary War veteran--this study will provide insights into the creative process and will closely focus some of the historical sources of the American dream and disillusionment that emerge in Melville's elaborate fictive.