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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