Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Matthew Brennan

Second Advisor

Jake Jakaitis

Third Advisor

Charles Nicol

Abstract

Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick represents an experiment in Romantic literature. In addition to relying on the works of British Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Melville also applies Edmund Burke's ideas of the sublime to depict the inherent terror of hunting whales on the open ocean. According to Burke, the sublime is anything that inspires fear in the human mind, and Melville describes whaling in sublime terms. Melville also employs the sublime to critique 19th-century American society. The novel attacks humanity's drive to conquer both the natural world and other human beings. I will examine how the novel's application of the sublime to the practice of whaling relates to the totalitarian racial politics of Melville's day. Essentially, Melville attempts to destabilize the alleged racial superiority of white Americans by arguing that all humans are subjected to the terrors of nature. As a result, instead of reinforcing false notions of racial superiority, the sublime should foster imaginative sympathy for the frailties of the human condition. Rather than perceiving nature and people of color as terrifying or mysterious phenomena that must be either conquered or destroyed, the novel contends that white Americans should realize the tenuousness and falsity of their supposed racial superiority. I will discuss the sublime elements of Moby-Dick as well as Melville's hope to instill humility in a racist, imperialist society. Such humility offers spiritual and national enlightenment as well as the possibility of universal harmony.

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