Exam ReviewApril 1, 2015PARATEXT- sets up the genre and readers
expectation- gives context of the narrative- guides interpretations
of the text- can create a realism effect- creates a contract
between the reader and the author- Moby-Dick uses non-realistic,
perhaps symbolic cover artdo we expect to read something
realistic?- how are we going to read it?- what realistic
expectations will we have of it?- the presentation might tell us
how we see its statushow is the original novel packaged within its
paratext to convey some sort of authority for the reader?
TITLE PAGES- in the first American edition, Moby-Dick and The
Whale had equal merit- nobody would recognize the name Moby-Dick
because the book was not well-known- Moby-Dick is identified as a
personified creature and is this specific whaleindividuality- Typee
is based on one of Melvilles seafaring trips, somewhat
autobiographicalhe deserted the shipwent to an island and ran into
the forestslived with a tribe because he was injuredthey didnt want
him to leavehe escaped back to America and continued his seafaring
trips- Omoo is the sequel to Typeeboth presented as non-fiction
autobiography- there is a strong sense of authority of seafaring
and non-fictional writingwe dont know if its going to be fiction or
non-fiction- Harper Brothers were a prominent publisher gave him
more authority / credibility
ETYMOLOGY- maybe this is a non-fiction text- brackets seem
tangentialthe pale Usher seems out of place- it seems vaguely
comical, like he is remembering a personal connection- its not just
a physical descriptionit seems to go deeper and more personal than
just appearances- threadbare in brain undermines the authority of
the Usher- mockingly embellished suggests that the Usher never got
to travel although he wanted to compared to Melville who we already
know has traveled a lot- Melvilles tone is changing so its hard to
followstarting objective and almost scientific then moves into a
personal mode then moves into seemly undermining this figure of
authority- our reaction = sad because this Usher can only travel
through books he readsprobably poor threadbare and
consumptivesomething melancholic about itthen almost affectionate
He loved to dust his old grammars- hes going to give us knowledge
and pin it on a specific sourcediscusses this knowledge that comes
from a frail, very human source- we infer ourselves that the
etymology is of whale- the etymology does not tell us much-
insistence on this objective languagewhat did I learn from
that?
EXTRACTS- apparently a lot of digressiveness- supplied by a
Sub-Sub-Librariansatirical characterpresented in a somewhat serious
and comical way- Leviathan is a creature that embodies divine
creationmysterious and violentOther of divine powerembodies depths
of nature itself- whale = allegorical creaturedifficult to
assimilate as a species
It was not till the boats returned from the pursuit of these
whales, that the whites saw their ship in bloody possession of the
savages enrolled among the crew.
It is generally well known that our of the crews of Whaling
vessels (American) few ever return in the ships on board of which
they departed.
Suddenly a mighty mass emerged from the water, and shot up
perpendicularly into the air It was the whale.
- generally, all three underline how dangerous and merciless
these whales are- it sets us up for already being biased we are to
see whales in a negative light- mass vs mast
THE WHALE (MOBY-DICK)- creation of God- size, mysterious /
awesome power in/over nature- dangerous by accident?- light /
dark?- personified?- victim of hunt / hint of whale perspective vs
human- mutiny / violence at sea whalinghuman violence- contrast
between awesomeness / personality / otherness of this creature and
mundane, commercial / ornamental / trivial purposesuse of whale
bone, substitute for plastic before plastic existed
TAKE HOME MESSAGE- contradiction and ambivalence starting from
Ancient times to his contemporary timesknowledge of the whale that
dont add up and that contradictory- always asking us to think and
be reminded of the people who are the authorities for that
knowledgeobjective framework, subjective contentParatextJanuary 7,
2015
OPENING (INCIPIT)- everything an opening can do is optional-
setting: time and / or space- why dont we know anything about the
setting?it focuses more on Ishmael and introduces his mindsethes
not really in the state of mind to remember land as much as sea
because he prefers the latter- we get some sense of the setting but
its negativeits described as a place where the story is most likely
not going to take place because it gives incentive to move the
setting to the seathe sea is more desirable to Ishmael- perhaps the
sea is the setting- the characters relationship to the setting is
introduced- right now, we dont know when this takes placeimagined
present tensewe assume that its in the early 19th century- does not
introduce the primary setting- it appears to be an American
setting- how does he describe land?he describes it to be
prison-likeit ties him down and is restrictiveland is surrounded by
the sea- introduces us directly and most primarily to the
character
Call me Ishmael- asks us to accept this name- immediately
suggests some kind of hidden knowledge- perhaps its
autobiographical- biblical- hes saying: in this story, who I am is
importantbut not important in terms of my personal historythe
narrator wants to give us as little of this info as possible- hes
sad and depressed a lot
ISHMAEL- randomly violent towards others to provoke themknocking
peoples hats off- hes a hard worker he likes to work as a sailor
for the money- he has a lot of experience as a sailorhes been a
common sailordoesnt want to move up in the rankshes not sure why
but he wants to join in whaling- he was raised Christian- money is
the root of all earthly illshes not comfortable or interested in
capitalismcontext: he likes earning money- introduces his tone of
voice and the way he expresses himselfalmost humorous - is he
trying to be funny or not?is he exaggerating for humour?- the
opening sets up incompletenessthere are things obviously
missingwhat is set up as a question?were presented with fragments-
until the journey begins in chapter 2, what is incomplete?why is
the sea so important to the story?
PAGE 5- that is the key to it all ironic- tormenting and
mildsomething liberating and dangerousenigmatic and
contradictory
FOOD FOR THOUGHT- New Bedford: he arrives and our intro through
the narrator is a dark and empty placeits cold and
inhospitablepeeks in doorways- during the day, there is a different
description of the townfilled with sailors form all corners of the
earthit becomes extremely lively- he keeps surprising us (i.e. the
difference between night and day)- Queequeg: before going to seawe
experience the opening actions of the novelthe entire arc is his
growing relationship with Queequeg- as were introduced to Ishmael,
we are introduced to Queequeg
QUEEQUEG- described as a civilized savage character- hes trying
to sell shrunken heads barbaric and cannibalisticoutside the bounds
of civility- Ishmael is in awe of his power and sizesuggestion of
violent skills as a harpoonerconnects to Ishmaels implied violence-
the harpoon is an extension of him connects him to the sea- he is
read as a stereotype and then it gradually becomes
undoneindividualized- he has a unique backstory- he has the
intelligence to reject Christianity- there is humour sprinkled
throughoutChapters 1 - 12January 12, 2015
ISHMAEL AS NARRATOR- first-person narrationwe are introduced to
the I as a character- the style of the narrator is very playfulwhen
he describes himself and how hes feeling- he attempts to conveys
why escaping to the water is important- he wont tell us why hes
feeling his emotions evasive- subjective approach to description of
experiences not just truth and factscreative, metaphorical- number
of thematic oppositionsland and city vs sea and ship land vs
seaoutsider vs conventional identitiesgroups people who are acting
the same way he stands aparthes so irritated by city life that he
purposely starts fights- flamboyant in the way he expresses
himself- conventional ideas and feelings = scant, troubled- racial
ideology = his relationship to Queequegstarts off seeing him as a
stereotype to fear to curiosity to friendship- friendship =
increasingly heavy-handed humour around their male-male friendship
as being a married couplegets over the otherness of Queequegits
described as a kind of love (i.e. marriage bed)- takes up a lot of
time in the opening chaptersit adds to Ishmaels otherness because
he is in an unusual categoryMelville approaches this in a
self-reflexive manner
FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR- uses pronouns to force some sort of
relationship with the II is going to be your guideare we on his
side or their side? hes trying to force us to be on his side- you
only know within context who we isis it I and the reader, they and
the reader or I and they?in one word bring I and you together even
with they- rhetorically insists on we that we may not have been
able to accept earlier- he tries to create a close relationship
between I and you and readerin preparation to Ishmaels relationship
with Queequeg- even Ishmaels most mundane actions are
unconventional to us- hes going to unconventional lengths to do
thingshes not going to learn anything from putting Queequegs poncho
on- what do you lose from the first-person narrative?describing
Ishmaels appearance- anything Ishmael gives us is of interest to
himex. description of a painting in the Spouter Innfits very well
with the lack of a description of himself (i.e. Call me Ishmael)-
we dont have any preconceived ideas of how he would react with
actions / events in the novelits hard to predict what his reactions
could be- Hughes cautions that omniscient is more of a casual term
that refers to the effect of first-person narrationalmost all
novelists want to have narrators anonymous and non-characterauthors
want to control what they can / are able to tell us
PROPER NAMES- never arbitrary even if the significance is that
its arbitrary- any name in the context of a story is going to
minimally come from a language or cultureit will associate someone
with a language and culturebut not in a clear and unambiguous way-
you can be fooled by names- in comedy, names often / traditionally
suggest physical or moral attributes- in allegory, names are often
metonymic or metaphoricali.e. Snow White, dwarves- sounds can be
meaningful depending on the dominant language being usedi.e. Yoda,
Obi-Wan Kenobi Eastern culture- expectations of spelling can be
conventionalizedex. fantasy world names tend to have more vowels-
names can be used symbolically / in an iconic manner- in realist
fiction, it can be harder to choose a name- Ishmael = it works as a
masksuppresses the importance of building an individual identity
and backgroundallows us to step into his charactertells us the
narrator wants us to focus in an unprejudiced manner on this
character- Ishmael = biblical reference signifies a homeless
wandererson of Hagar and a servant where the mother and the son are
thrust into the desert and wander around in search of a
homelower-classnot a great person of the worldallusive- Queequeg:
mystery of Queequeg has an odd parallelism to the mystery of the
whalewhat is the whale?Names and NarratorsJanuary 14,
2015illegibility
DISCOURS/RCIT- discours: scene of narration narrating itself is
upfront and obviousmain action or reference of the narrations-
rcit: what is being told is in the foregroundthe teller recedes
into the background and we see the story through them- Queequeg and
I are now presentthings that occur to him that he wants to tell us
about his storylevel of time and space is of the telling, not the
story- most novels, as a genre, give us rcit narrative action and
focus on story- Ishmael is a very in-your-face narrator SPACE- we
can map out the space of a novelit will be significant- symbolic
geography- a certain kind of novel will only be set in an isolated
place, etc.the novelist is free to push away realist details they
dont have to deal withfocus on interpersonal relationships- Pequod
associated with antiquity and mysteriousnessthese things have been
referenced in terms of whales in the paratext- raised the fear of
cannibalismrationalizing attempt to understand cannibalism
ethnographicallyalmost apologizes to Queequeg for judging
himDiscours/RcitJanuary 19, 2015-
CHAPTER 19 (pp. 101-2)- humour effect- ominous foreshadowing-
analepsis and prolepsis- Ishmael loves interacting with people when
hes riled upeven if its not productive- he lay like dead physical?
psychological?profound reborn in this condition- present
fragmentary past and future- partly humorous, partly ominous
contrast- shadowy, deep time past and future that may control whats
going to happen to Ishmael- enigmatic, scattered, mysterious,
difficult to interpret- Melville wants us to accept that it is
somehow fateful, but not scriptedhuge, historical conditions
associated (particularly with Ahab) that the cannot escape
CHAPTER 17 (pp. 93)Close ReadingJanuary 21, 2015-
- description you feel like youre in the narrativercit- isolates
something for description- what is the function of the
description?character?- hyperbole: groups together with ornamental
for historical reasonsits purpose is not to give you a realistic
sense of entering a space that is familiar or believableits purpose
is not to be expressive eitherjust to be pleasurable or ornamental
in writingor to be ornamental in a horrifying waysupposed to be
sensationalrhetorical pleasure effect- hyperbole vs understatement
(litote)- expressive: expresses values, ideas of a characterit
almost has to be extremecoloured by perspective- productive:
description foregrounds its own processcalls to attention to
itselfcan be humoroussomeone is working to provide that
description- productive ex.: description of the whalesch. 32:
Cetologycreates his own system of describing and categorizing
themuse of books = artificial, perhaps provisional- representative
description: very common, because realist novel is
commonDescriptionsJanuary 26, 2015
- story operator: - different kinds of characters i.e. fictional
constructsartificially constructing imaginary textual thing =
character
KINDS OF CHARACTERSTYPE CHARACTERS- defined only by what they do
in the plot or the setting- normally minor characters- no
individuality, and if they are it is irrelevant to the narrative-
purpose: perform a needed function in the narrative functional
characters- ex. the barber, inn-keepers in Moby-Dick- Peter Coffins
narrative function= bring Ishmael and Queequeg together- ornamental
character?- expository character? primary function = explain how
the lay system works
REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTERS- exemplify / connote a category of
person especially some kind of group or class of personsociological
group- ex. Polynesian sailor (Manx) quick snapshots,
self-consciously artificially created stereotypes or representative
of a groupsuperstitiousracial-ethnic stereotypes- dont have to be
realistic can be caricatures- it is decoded
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER- personality is individual, but not vice
versapersonality = individual plus something- not simply
representative attempts to be a portrait of an
individualrepresentative: can perform narrative functions character
types overlap- ex. Flask, Peleg, Bildad, Father Mapple- fixed
characters
PERSONALITY CHARACTER- in process, unfinished, in development,
unpredictable complexconflicted / unresolved / indeterminate in a
real life way- ex. Queequeg, Ishmael- could Moby-Dick be a
personality?
- to get away form the problem of using the word type, use
functional- are we talking about a character or fictional element
in an internal way?external = as if elements are real within the
story spaceCharacterJanuary 28, 2015
ELEMENTS OF CHARACTER PORTRAITS- exterior description-
description of mentality / mental habits- social placing- outline
of history, prospects- general feeling of narrator towards
characters
MOBY DICK- exterior description:wrinkled forehead (age?)white
colouringunusual jawCharacter PortraitsFebruary 2, 2015size:
giant
- direct speech = the actual words that someone is
sayingquotations marks- indirect speech = the narrator or a
character telling us what is being saidchanneling ithearsay?-
reported speech = different form indirect speechindirect speech
still communicates in some way the style and some of the words that
somebody is using, just not in quotation marksreported speech tends
to emphasize the fact that somebody has spokendoesnt communicate
style or expression of what is being said- phatic dialogue: only to
establish contact and recognition between characterspure phatic
dialogue: no content or information involvedIm here and I recognize
you and Im waiting for a responsei.e. hellos and goodbyes- didactic
dialogue: between characters that is intended to move knowledge and
information from one character who knows to one character who
doesntmost often in novels, results in telling the reader
information- polemic dialogue: - dialectic dialogue:-
characterization of different voices: style of the voiceFebruary 4,
2015
- (quoted) monologue: spokenaloud, alone- (quoted) interior
monologue: thoughtvs. indirectattempt to reveal flow of actual
thoughtsaddressed to the self- purpose of monologues:develop /
expand characterexpound / deepen themes or ideasboth- embedded
theatrical monologue (soliloquy)- interior monologue + description
by narrator of character thoughts (+ other description)can flow
back and forth seamlesslyMonologuesFebruary 9, 2015free indirect
discours not third person
- stories are rarely told in chronological order2015-01-05 3:41
PM- scene pause summary ellipsis
- you dont really know until the end whether events are kernel
or satellite- kernel events:the choice of the PequodMoby-Dick
chomps off Ahabs legIshmael meeting Queequeg Queequegs choice of
the Pequod- character narrator: information about himself/herself
dramatized narrator1. protagonist: most common, autobiographical
life story2. participant observer: embedded in the story, not as
hero, antihero or, protagonist3. could or does belong to the
fictional world of the story, but is not a part of the story
belongs on a different level of storyextra-diagetic: being on a
different narrative level- Ishmael is a participant observernot
really a part of the plot- is Ishmael a reliable narrator?all novel
narrators will tell you more than is humanly possible in real life
plausibility of memoryNarratorsMarch 2, 2015perhaps his enthusiasm
contributes to his hyperbolic attitude towards life
March 4, 2015
ADJECTIVES- surplussage: author can pile on adjectives, so we
have trouble putting the scene togetherthrough adjectives an
adjectival phrases- he wants us to be lured in a seduced by the
mysteryMarch 11, 2015-
- Ahabs inevitability and controlhes controlling the future by
laying out a triadtendency towards ordering things in
threesanaphora: imposes strong order of language which evokes a
kind of fate- alliteration- typical type of repetition =
motifLeviathandivine creation: prime evil creationforeboding
destinywhale bones / jawswhiteness- Moby-Dick compared to Jupiter-
theme: fate and predestinationMarch 23, 2015-
- closure is importantMarch 25, 2015- the frame of the narrator
closes the story
- plot: almost total death / destruction character / spacei.e.
Pequod / Ahab / whaling- frame, text- finis typically a theatrical
termreminds us of the dramatic language and setting- moral: the
novel provides a moral or message at the end- Shakespeare: the
epilogue resembles a theatrical epilogue character addresses
audience directly with a summary or commentary- projection: the
world projects itself forwards (i.e. in time) without the
readerwithdrawal- structure: pause summary scene summarygives a
centre for the reading and emphasis on Queequegs coffin- the novel
ends with The Rachel closuresimple narration but uses these
elements to highlight enigmatic momentsClosureMarch 30, 2015-
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