美国文学史及选读(上册).pptVIP

Herman Melville (1819-1891) 4. Themes and subjects: A. Alienation: he found existing on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. (e.g. Ahab) B. criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individual: Ahab is too much of a self-reliant individual to be a good human being. He stands alone on his own one leg among the millions of the peopled earth. For him the only law is his own will. To him the world exists for his own sake. His selfhood must be asserted at the expense of all else. C. Rejection and Quest: Ishmael resembles his namesake in the Bible in that he is a wanderer. Tired with and rejecting his early lifestyle, he tried to seek for a happy and ideal life. He gradually comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature and begins to feel the significance of love and fraternity among mortal beings. Voyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values. Herman Melville (1819-1891) 5. Symbolism in the novel Moby Dick A. the voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.” B. the Pequod is the ship of the American soul and consciousness. C. Moby Dick is a symbol of evil to some, of goodness to others, and of both to still others. D. The whiteness of Moby Dick is a paradoxical color, signifying death and corruption as well as purity, innocence and youth; it represents the final mystery of the universe. Herman Melville (1819-1891) 7. The revival of Melville A dedicated artist There was, to be sure, a great deal of Ahab in him. “I have written a wicked book” Born in the 19th century, Melville did not receive recognition until the 20th century. In the 1920s, a Columbia scholar, G. M. Weaver, did solid work in reviving him. 4.Representative figures: some 30 men and a couple of women such as Emerson, Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Margaret Fuller, most of them teachers or clergymen, radicals against rigid rationalism of Unitarianism（基督教上帝一位论，集权