In Pursuit of Moby-Dick

ISBN-13: 9783031403569 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023

Joseph S. Catalano

Opis

This study presents Moby-Dick as a novel with three distinct but interconnecting stories: Ishmael’s, which he shares ten years after it has taken place; Ahab’s, which is Ishmael's account of the memorable captain of a whaling ship; and a third which centres on whales and whaling, which has not received significant critical attention. While each of these perspectives compete for prominence in the narrative, Ahab and Ishmael's stories have often distracted from the vital significance of the whaling narrative as what outlasts Ahab’s obsessive mission. Catalano rights this wrong by coming to a strikingly original and thought-provoking conclusion which becomes the heart of the book's argument: “the unity of Melville’s book comes, first, from the way the numerous literary, philosophical, and religious reflections are rooted in those magnificent beings, whales and in the men and ships that pursue them, and, second, in the way these reflections illuminate our own lives.”

Spis treści

Chapter 1: No Need to Rush

Chapter 2: The Book Itself  

Chapter 3: Etymology and Extracts

Chapter 4 A Tale Twice Told   

Chapter 5 Ishmael and Queequeg               

Chapter 6 Going Whaling and a Hint of Ahab  

Chapter 7 Ahab as Captain and Ahab as Ahab  

Chapter 8 Ahab and Moby Dick  

Chapter 9: The Town-Ho’s Story and Other Gams 

Chapter 10: Whales! Conversation, Art, Dining, Business, and Poetry

Chapter 11:  Ahab’s Leg and Ahab’s life 

Chapter 12: Conclusions, The Unity of Moby-Dick, and A Critical Reflectione

O autorze

Joseph S. Catalono is professor emeritus of philosophy at Kean University, USA. Some of his previous publications include Thinking Matter: Consciousness From Aristotle to Putnam and Sartre (2000), Reading Sartre: An Invitation…(2010), and The Saint and the Atheist: Thomas Aquinas and Jean-Paul Sartre (2021).

Blurb

This study presents Moby-Dick as a novel with three distinct but interconnecting stories: Ishmael’s, which he shares ten years after it has taken place; Ahab’s, which is Ishmael's account of the memorable captain of a whaling ship; and a third which centres on whales and whaling, which has not received significant critical attention. While each of these perspectives compete for prominence in the narrative, Ahab and Ishmael's stories have often distracted from the vital significance of the whaling narrative as what outlasts Ahab’s obsessive mission. Catalano rights this wrong by coming to a strikingly original and thought-provoking conclusion which becomes the heart of the book's argument: “the unity of Melville’s book comes, first, from the way the numerous literary, philosophical, and religious reflections are rooted in those magnificent beings, whales and in the men and ships that pursue them, and, second, in the way these reflections illuminate our own lives.”

Joseph S. Catalono is professor emeritus of philosophy at Kean University, USA. Some of his previous publications include Thinking Matter: Consciousness From Aristotle to Putnam and Sartre (2000), Reading Sartre: An Invitation…(2010), and The Saint and the Atheist: Thomas Aquinas and Jean-Paul Sartre (2021).