- International Journal of Media Culture and Literature
- Cilt: 8 Sayı: 2
- American Adam Myth and Ahab: Sartre’s Masculine Principles in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”
American Adam Myth and Ahab: Sartre’s Masculine Principles in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”
Authors : Oğuzhan Ayrım
Pages : 119-141
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Publication Date : 2024-03-01
Article Type : Research
Abstract :Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is open to many readings, but one that has yet to be explored is the existential reading of Ahab’s pursuit from a gender perspective. By weaving together biblical, mythical, and mystical elements, the novel unfolds with a poignant awareness of the hero\'s inevitable downfall, while Captain Ahab’s vengeance on the whale transcends the expected qualities of a maritime quest. A self-made man, Ahab endures his ever-present obsession and relentlessly clings to his deadliest struggle – an echo of Sartre’s proclamation, “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.” Yet, intricately entwined with the spirit of nineteenth-century America, Ahab\'s character assumes a canonical representation of American ideals; therefore, his pursuit serves as a cultural mirror reflecting the societal norms of the nineteenth-century American mindset by mirroring the nation’s political ethos of expansionism against nature associated with the feminine Other. Bearing this in mind, Melville subtly indicates that Ahab’s explicit self-superiority is accompanied by a biblical line of appointing females as something to take revenge on. In this narrative, Ahab\'s embodiment of the American hero undergoes a metamorphosis into an American Adam figure, one who asserts dominance over the debased female Other, symbolized by the whale. Interrogating Ahab\'s portrayal as an American Adam-type within the broader societal context of supremacist ideals, this article delves into Ahab\'s pursuit through the lens of Sartrean Existentialism. By doing so, this article reveals Ahab’s idealistic quest to hunt down the whale as a metaphor for hegemonic masculinity and subordinate femininity by exploring the subject/object, and the pursuer/pursued dynamics.Keywords : Amerikan Âdem, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Sartre’ın Varoluşçuluğu, Eril Şiddet, Kültürel Yayılmacılık, Öteki.