Biblische Bezüge in Moby-Dick: Teil 1: „Call me Ishmael“ : Zur Symbolik des Ismael-Namens
„Call me Ishmael“ – The famous beginning of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is an invitation to identify the narrator with the biblical person of Ishmael. But what is the purpose of this identification? The paper first introduces the use of the Bible in Melville's work. It then discusses the f...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
2022
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| In: |
Die Bibel in der Kunst
Year: 2022, Volume: 6, Pages: 1-36 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ishmael
/ Melville, Herman 1819-1891
/ Narrator
/ Reader-response criticism
/ Christianity
/ Anthropology
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| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism HB Old Testament |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | „Call me Ishmael“ – The famous beginning of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is an invitation to identify the narrator with the biblical person of Ishmael. But what is the purpose of this identification? The paper first introduces the use of the Bible in Melville's work. It then discusses the figure of Ishmael in the Abrahamic narrative as well as in New Testament and later in Christian reception history. Ten exemplary Ishmael configurations from the 19th century open up a space in which the Ishmael-figures in Melville can be located. Subsequently, the figure of Ishmael is ex- plored as he is encountered in Moby-Dick. In Moby-Dick, Ishmael is no longer the aggressive out- sider who is the enemy to all the world, but an everyman, a protagonist who is thrown alone into an inscrutable world and must accept his existence, to which a higher meaning can no longer be attributed. The phrases „Call me Ishmael“ at the beginning and „another orphan“ at the end of the novel establish as a metaphor for existence an framework of this powerful narration. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Die Bibel in der Kunst
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