‘Um pensamento insone’: os perigos do símbolo em Moby Dick, de Herman Melville

André Cechinel; Gladir da Silva Cabral

doi:10.4025/actascilangcult.v37i1.23472

‘An ever-pacing thought’: the dangers of the symbol in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Authors

André Cechinel Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense
Gladir da Silva Cabral Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4025/actascilangcult.v37i1.23472

Keywords:

Moby Dick, symbols, instability

Abstract

This study investigates the instability of the symbols in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, and the dangers of a symbolic reading both to the crew of the Pequod and the reader of the novel. If Ishmael, on the one hand, inhabits the borders of the text and, therefore, becomes the only possible witness to the shipwreck – that is to say – the one who erases his traces of identity so that he can narrate his experience – Ahab, on the other hand, invests in the alleged concreteness of the symbols and, for this reason, submerges along with the meanings he first attributed to his quest. Together with the sinking of the Pequod, the symbols submerge to make way for an errant textuality.

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Author Biographies

André Cechinel, Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense

Doutor em Teoria Literária pela UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina). Professor de Literatura e Teoria Literária do Curso de Letras e do Mestrado em Educação da UNESC (Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense).
Gladir da Silva Cabral, Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense

Doutor em Inglês e Literaturas Correspondentes pela UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina). Professor de Literatura do Curso de Letras e do Mestrado em Educação da UNESC (Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense).

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PDF (Portuguese)

Published

2014-12-15

Issue

Vol. 37 No. 1 (2015)

Section

Literature

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How to Cite

‘An ever-pacing thought’: the dangers of the symbol in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. (2014). Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture, 37(1), 49-56. https://doi.org/10.4025/actascilangcult.v37i1.23472