讲义15麦尔维尔

1、Herman Melville 1819-1891Generally ignored in his own time and almost forgotten in the years after his death, Melville has since then emerged as one of the giants of American literature.“So God created the great sea monstersthe fifth day.” -GenesisThe creator of the first fish in American literature

2、Is the whale our brother?Herman Melville, the creator of Moby Dick1. Born in a New York family of Boston Calvinist and New York Dutch ancestry, into an atmosphere of security and comfort, well educated and socially happy.2. His parents accustomed to a comfortable and refined way of life: his mother

3、Maria Gansevoort and his father Allan Melville, educated in the College of New Jersey ( Princeton University)3. Taught by a family governess, and went to New York Male High School4. His father died early in 1832 ( overwork, nervous exhaustion, ing insane, leaving heavy debts behind)5. Tried his hand

4、 at clerking, farming, teaching and writingHerman Melville, the Big Questioner1. A common sailor on a merchant ship, and working on three whale ships to the South Seas, jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands and Hawaii2. The whale ship was “ my Yale and my Harvard”3. Lived a life of genteel poverty as

5、 a customs inspector in the port of New York ( earning 4 dollars a day)4. Married on August4, 1847 to Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of a chief justice turning him from a world wanderer to a respectable family man5. Died in obscurity6. In 1924, his manuscript of the novella, Billy Budd was discovered

6、and published, arousing public interest in himTypee ( 1846)Melvilles first novel. The narrator and his friend desert their whaling ship in the Marquesas Islands and spend three months with the Yypee cannibals. The narrator admires the easy primitive life of the islanders and especially fond of the l

7、ovely Fayaway.Omoo (1847)A sequel to TypeeThe narrator and the crew desert their whaler because of an eccentric captain and bad living conditions. They are jailed in Tahiti, and later the narrator ships aboard another whaler, leaving his friend Captain Long Ghost in Tahiti.Hawaiian sunsetMoby Dick (

8、1851)It is the Hamlet of American literature, and Captain Ahab is one of the few characters in literature who is “ formed for noble tragedies”, as while writing Moby Dick, Melville was reading Hawthorne and Shakespeare, and found in both a great sense of evil. What do these masters of tragedy create

9、? A victim of loveA victim of loveA victim of hatredTragic HeroesCaptain AhabCall me Ishmael. Some years ago-never mind how longpreciselyhaving little or nomoney in my purse, and nothingparticular to interest me on shore,I thought I would sail about a littleand see the watery part of the world.Two g

10、reat archetypes in American literatureAhab-a tragic figure who dares to seek and challenge the supernatural power while knowing that he is doomed to die.2. The white whale-the symbol of nature both good and evil as the color indicates.Ahab-a man of actionIshmael-a man of thoughtPequod, theworld of m

11、entrying theirbest to catchthe white whaleAmerican literary traditionNatty Bumppo, a civilized man going into the woods ,trying to know himself and society and nature with native IndiansAhab, a civilized man going to the deep oceantrying to challenge a power mightier than him and his crew of different races to “realize hisdream”.Huckleberry Finn, a white boy