Melville’in Moby Dick İsimli Eserinde Karşıtlık: Amerikan Transandantalizmi ile Karşı-Transandantalizm

Year 2019, Issue: 63, 263 - 278, 27.12.2019

Olgahan Bakşi Yalcin

Abstract

Balina gemilerinde denizcilik yaparken
edindiği deneyimlerden yola çıkan Amerikalı romancı Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby
Dick (1851) isimli başyapıtında insanın denizle ve denizin belirsizlikleri
ile olan karmaşık ilişkisini ele alır. Bu
amaçla, denizcilik temalı romanında Melville, balina avcısı Kaptan Ahab’ın, bir
önceki av sırasasında gemisini tahrip eden ve bacağını dizinden koparan albino
sperm balinası Moby Dick’ten intikamını almak için girdiği saplantılı
arayışının hikayesini anlatıyor. Ahab gibi bir karakter yaratırken, Melville,
insan doğasının kötü, yıkıcı yanını ele almakta ve insan doğasının
sınırlamaları ile potansiyel yıkıcılığına odaklanmaktadır. Öte yandan, romanın
anlatıcısı Ishmael, roman boyunca Amerikan Transandantalizminin birçok yönünü yansıtmaktadır. Bu nedenle, romanın karşıt
iki kahramanı, romanın yapısına da yansımaktadır. Şöyle ki, Ishmael'in romanın
ilk bölümünde sergilediği Transandant idealizm ve iyimserlik, kitabın ikinci yarısında
yerini Shakespeare trajedisine
de uygun olan Ahab’ın intikam takıntısına ve diktacı liderliğine bırakmaktadır. Bu makale Moby Dick isimli eserde
Ishmael ve Kaptan Ahab karakterleri aracılığıyla, Amerikan Transandant idealizmi ile Karşı-Transandantalizmin
Shakespeare trajedisi formunda
nasıl bir arada kullanıldığı göstermeyi amaçlamaktadır.

 

Keywords

Herman Melville, Amerikan Transandantalizmi, Karşı-Transandantalizm, Shakepeare Trajedisi, Karşıtlık

The Dichotomy of Melville’s Moby Dick: American Transcendentalism and Anti-transcendentalism

Abstract

Counting on his own experiences as a seaman
aboard whaling ships, American novelist Herman Melville (1819-1891) comments
on the complex human relationship with the sea and its uncertainties in his masterpiece,
Moby Dick (1851). To this end, in his
maritime novel, Melville tells the story of the
obsessive quest of Captain Ahab of the whaler Pequod for revenge on Moby Dick, the albino sperm whale that
destroyed his vessel and bit off his leg at the knee on the previous whaling
voyage. In creating a character like Ahab, Melville seems to emphasize the evil
and destructive side of humanity, focusing
on the limitations and potential destructiveness of human nature. On the other
hand, the narrator of the novel, Ishmael, displays many aspects of American
transcendentalism throughout the novel. Thus, the two opposite protagonists are
reflected in the structure of the novel as the transcendental idealism and optimism that Ishmael
displays in the early part of the novel are replaced by Ahab’s obsession for
revenge and dictatorial leadership in the second half of the book, which is
also appropriate for Shakespearean tragedy. This paper seeks to explore how the
characters of Ishmael and Captain Ahab in Moby
Dick match American transcendental idealism with dark romanticism in the
form a Shakespearean tragic plot. 

Keywords

Herman Melville, American Transcendentalism, Anti-transcendentalism, Shakespearean tragedy, Dichotomy

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