Herman Melville and Manuela Sáenz: story of an unverifiable encounter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18537/puc.35.01.02Keywords:
Herman Melville, Manuela Sáenz, Latinoamérica, Moby Dick, literatura norteamericanaAbstract
Abstract: Biographies, newspapers and academic articles assert that American writer Herman Melville and independence hero Manuela Sáenz, conversed in the mid-19th century in Paita, Peru, about her exile and the journey he was undertaking around the seas (1841-1844), aboard the ships Acushnet and United States . No one provides sources that corroborate this meeting that now passes for official history. This essay shows Melville's detailed passage through Latin America to demonstrate that there is no evidence that the two met. In addition, this essay points out Wolfgang von Hagen’s biography of Manuela Sáenz as the source that started the rumor and delves into the reasons he might have had for doing so. The essay concludes with the implications of this supposedly historical event in its leap to fiction, with a listing of literary and cinematographic works that mention the meeting.
Keywords: Herman Melville, Manuela Sáenz, Latin America, Moby Dick, American literature
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References
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