Preface: "when Leviathan's the text"
Out of bounds: Melville's American baroque
Spaces of American literature: geography and narrative form
'An everlasting terra incognita': globalization and world literature
Anti-Ishmael
Marine nomadology: Melville's antinomy of pure reason
'spaces that before were blank': the utopia of the periphery
A prosy stroll: overview and the urban itinerary
The ambiguities of place: local narrative and the global city
Conclusion: "Leviathan is not the biggest fish", or, the cartography of the Kraken.