American Adam Myth and Ahab: Sartre’s Masculine Principles in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• American Adam
• Herman Melville
• Moby Dick
• Sartrean Existentialism
• Male Violence
• Cultural Expansionism
• the Other.

American Adam Myth and Ahab: Sartre’s Masculine Principles in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”

Öz

Herman Melville’in Moby Dick’i birçok okumaya açıktır, ancak henüz değinilmemiş okumalardan biri, Ahab’ın arayışının toplumsal cinsiyet perspektifinden varoluşsal bir okumasıdır. İncil'e ait, mitolojik ve mistik unsurları bir araya getiren roman, kahramanın kaçınılmaz çöküşünün dokunaklı bir farkındalığıyla ortaya çıkarken, Kaptan Ahab'ın balinadan intikamı bir deniz yolculuğundan beklenen niteliklerin ötesine geçmektedir. Kendi kendini yetiştirmiş bir adam olan Ahab, her zaman mevcut olan takıntısına katlanır ve en ölümcül mücadelesine amansızca tutunur; bu, Sartre'ın şu beyanının bir yankısıdır: “İnsan, kendisini yarattığı şeyden başka bir şey değildir.” Yine de on dokuzuncu yüzyıl Amerika'sının ruhuyla karmaşık bir şekilde iç içe geçmiş olan Ahab'ın karakteri, Amerikan ideallerinin kanonik bir temsilini varsayar; bu nedenle onun arayışı, ulusun kadınsı Öteki ile ilişkilendirilen doğaya karşı yayılmacı politik ahlakını yansıtarak on dokuzuncu yüzyıl Amerikan zihniyetinin toplumsal normlarını yansıtan kültürel bir ayna görevi görüyor. Bunu akılda tutarak Melville, Ahab'ın açık bir şekilde kendi kendine üstünlüğüne, İncil'de kadınları intikam alınacak bir şey olarak atama çizgisinin eşlik ettiğini incelikli bir şekilde belirtir. Bu anlatıda, Ahab'ın Amerikan kahramanının vücut bulmuş hali, balina tarafından simgelenen aşağılanmış kadın Öteki üzerinde hakimiyet kuran Amerikalı Âdem figürüne dönüşüyor. Üstünlükçü ideallerin daha geniş toplumsal bağlamı içinde Ahab'ın Amerikan Âdem tipi tasvirini sorgulayan bu makale, Ahab'ın arayışını Sartre’ın Varoluşçuluk merceğinden inceliyor. Böylece bu makale, özne/nesne ve kovalayan/kovalanan dinamikleri arasında, Ahab’ın balinaya karşı olan tutumunu hegemonik erillik ve ikincil kadınlık metaforu olarak sorgulamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Amerikan Âdem
• Herman Melville
• Moby Dick
• Sartre’ın Varoluşçuluğu
• Eril Şiddet
• Kültürel Yayılmacılık
• Öteki.

Kaynakça

1. Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York and London: Verso.
2. Boone, J. (2022). Whalebone, Hoop Skirts, Corsets, Pants Roles: Women and the Melville Effect in Contemporary Art. American Literary History, https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajac080
3. Brodhead, R. H. (1984). Trying All Things: An Introduction to Moby Dick. In R. H. Brodhead (Ed.), New Essays on Moby Dick (pp. 1-21). New York: Cambridge University Press.
4. Donovan, J. (2000). Feminist Theory. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic.
5. Fleming, M. (2011). Sartre on Violence: Not so Ambivalent?. Sartre Studies International, 17(1): 20-40.
6. Carroll, R. and Prickett, S. (Eds). (2008). The Bible: Authorized King James Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
7. Gillespie, J. H. (2016). Sartre and the Death of God. Sartre Studies International, 22(1): 41-57.
8. Heimert, A. (1963). Moby Dick and American Political Symbolism. American Quarterly, 15(4): 498-534.

9. Lawrence, N. (2009). Melville’s Typee and the Expansion Controversy. South Central Review, 26(2): 61-71.
10. McWilliams, S. (2012). Ahab, American. The Review of Politics, 74(2): 233-260.
11. Melville, H. (1994). Moby Dick. London: Penguin Books.
12. Meszaros, I. (2012). The Works of Sartre: Search for Freedom and the Challenge of History. New York: Monthly Review Press.
13. Morris, P. S. (1985). Sartre on the Transcendence of the Ego. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 46(2): 179-198.
14. Natanson, M. (1973). A Critique of Jean Paul-Sartre’s Ontology. Dordrecht: Spring Netherlands.
15. Ogilvy, J. (1980). Mastery and Sexuality: Hegel’s Dialectic in Sartre and Post-Freudian Psychology. Human Studies, 3(3): 201-219.
16. Pearce, R. H. (1956). The American Adam and the State of American Studies: A Review Essay. The Journal of Higher Education, 27(2): 104-106.
17. Sartre, J.- P. (1956). Existentialism is a Humanism. In W. Kaufman (Ed.), Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre. (pp. 1-14). New York: Meridian Books. Retrieved from: sartre-eih.pdf (warwick.ac.uk)
18. Sartre, J.- P. (1978). Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology. New York: Pocket Books.
19. Stack, G. & Plant, R. W. (1982). The Phenomenon of the Look. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 42(3): 359-379.
20. Stokes, M. (2001). The Color of Sex: Whiteness, Heterosexuality, and the Fictions of White Supremacy. Durham: Duke University Press.
21. Thompson, N. (2001). The Ship of State: Statecraft and Politics from Ancient Greece to Democratic America. London: Yale University Press.
22. Wang, S. (2006). Human Incompletion, Happiness, and the Desire for God in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. Sartre Studies International, 12(1): 1-17.
23. Ward, G. (2012). Adam and Eve’s Shame (and Ours). Literature and Theology, 26(3): 305-322.