The Mechanics of Individualism in Bartleby the Scrivener.
Herman Melvilles, Bartleby the Scrivener is a short story published in the year 1853, a time where literature (or culture, more generally) contributes to the formation of the norms and the values of the majority (Norberg 91). With Bartleby, Melville wanted to explore the effects that individualism had in a utilitarian society. But, according to Peter Norberg in his work titled On Teaching Bartleby, Melvilles story can be used effectively to raise questions about the form of liberal democracy (91). The short story can be read in numerous contexts, but if Bartleby is analyzed from the perspective of democracy, a theme such as the representation of minorities in socio-political and economic discussions will emerge.
In the article, Norberg explains his pedagogic strategy when teaching Bartleby. Introducing authors, such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, he teaches the following term, self-culture as, the formation of a distinctly American ideology of individualism that functions ambivalently within a majoritarian democracy (91). The transcendentalist ideals of both Emerson and Thoreau help Norbergs students place Bartleby in the correct historical and ideological context. Understanding the contradiction of individualism as a way of living in a society that does not represent the ideals of the minority will help place the reader within Bartlebys perspective.
For example, using Thoreaus Walden:.
Seems [] more like the philosophical foundations of an alternative form of democracy, one that is conceptualized from the position of minority views that define their interests in opposition to the institutional forces that work to align majority public opinion with the utilitarian values of the productivity and market efficiency. (Norberg 94).
The institutionalization of the majoritys opinions would be analyzed in Bartleby as such; The narrator, who expects the scrivener to act and work for him a certain way, finds it difficult to comprehend why the lonesome Bartleby does not follow what is expected of him by his employer.
