If You Don’t Know Me by Now: The Failure of Care in “Bartleby, The Scrivener”

Abstract

<p><span>"Bartleby, the Scrivener" is one of the most haunting tales of the nineteenth century. Criticism has centered on analysis of both the narrator and Bartleby himself, taking up the question of whether or not the narrator ultimately fulfills his moral obligations to Bartleby. I believe an approach to the story, however, which takes as its starting point a critique of the medical model of disability helps elucidate this issue. This approach makes it clear that given his situation in a world which values a medically inspired model of understanding difference, the narrator, benevolent as he may be, can never do enough for Bartleby, because, given this situation, he can never ask the right questions of Bartleby or posit appropriate solutions for him. I conclude my argument with a consideration of critical complicity in this issue as critics attempt to classify Bartleby, thereby following in the narrator's misguided footsteps.</span></p>

Discipline and Prosper? A Case Study of Interdisciplinary Environments in English Literature Master’s Level Courses in Sweden

“…The primary texts for this unit were Herman Melville's 1853 story 'Bartleby the scrivener' and three chapters from Mark Haddon's 2004 The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Additionally, students were assigned three critical texts: one about the historical development of Asperger's syndrome (Koegel 2008), one critical text about each primary source (Freißmann 2008;Nixon 2014), and a chapter on cognitive difference and narrative (Hall 2016). Prompts for reflection included: 1) Do the fictional texts illuminate aspects of autism?…”