Journal Article

Bartleby

Kastner, Tal

2011

Overview

This article offers an original reading of Herman Melville's canonical story, \"Bartleby, the Scrivener,\" identifying the nineteenth-century notion and practice of contract as a significant, previously overlooked, element of the tale. Considering contract as a prevailing symbol of autonomy and freedom in nineteenth-century America, the article highlights the necessarily qualified nature of contract as a manifestation of intention. From this perspective, the notion of boilerplate, or standardized terms, can be viewed as an alternative model for the operation of contract and expression. Reading \"Bartleby\" in light of the limits of contract and the notion of boilerplate as a speech act dissociated from the specific intention of an individual, the article traces the ways in which form language pervades the tale. In particular, boilerplate can be seen in the documents that Bartleby is hired to reproduce as well as in his signature refrain, \"I would prefer not to,\" by which he manifests his desire to exit the framework of capitalism and contract. As a sign of Bartleby's inscrutability - or the elusiveness of intention - as well as of his distinct character, the refrain demonstrates the expressive potential of boilerplate. In addition, boilerplate proves a tool of Bartleby's successful, if temporary, resistance to the broader structure of contract. At the same time, situated in a social framework that at times naturalizes inequity and inequality through contract, Bartleby's defining response is not only absorbed into the dominant language of exchange but can be seen to be derived from it. As this article reveals, \"Bartleby\" anticipates the significance and limits of contract as a vehicle of freedom in the American cultural consciousness during emancipation. (Author abstract)