Interpreting Narrative Techniques in Moby-Dick

• Thesis title in Czech: Interpretace narativních technik v Bílé velrybě
• Thesis title in English: Interpreting Narrative Techniques in Moby-Dick
• Key words: Herman Melville, Bílá velryba, narativní techniky, interpretace, nespolehlivý vypravěč, vypravěč, reflektor, encyklopedický román
• English key words: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, narrative techniques, interpretation, unreliable narrator, narrator, reflector, encyclopedic novel
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2013/2014
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Martin Procházka, CSc.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 22.05.2014
• Date of assignment: 22.05.2014
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 28.05.2014
• Date and time of defence: 22.06.2015 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 01.06.2015
• Date of proceeded defence: 22.06.2015
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: David Lee Robbins, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The objective of this thesis is to map the narrative strategies of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. By applying different narrative theories to Moby-Dick, it explores and assesses mainly the narrative authority (Booth) and the narrative situation (Stanzel). Ishmael is generally considered to be an example of an unreliable narrator and in this thesis manifestations of his unreliability are evaluated. Special focus is given to the narrative ‘faults’ (recurring disappearances of Ishmael, shifts in focus on some of the characters, complete disappearance of other characters) and their treatment, taking the general academic consensus into account. Such phenomena are discussed as manifestations of the self-consciousness of the author. By employing Stanzel’s narrative theory, the thesis discusses Ishmael’s oscillation between ‘narrator’ and ‘reflector’. Using both of these conceptions, Moby-Dick is assessed from two different perspectives, hopefully shedding some light on the complex narrative strategy of the novel. The whole analysis of the narrative strategy is applied to the interpretation of Ishmael and the effect of his idiosyncratic narrative on the structure and nature of Moby-Dick (novel with elements of drama and essay).
The first chapter evaluates Ishmael from Booth’s point of view, with special regard to the definition, evaluation, interpretation of the abovementioned narrative ‘faults’; the initial hypothesis being that their function is to affirm the narrator’s unreliability. The second chapter examines the narrative situation using Stanzel’s theory (i.e. Ishmael as the ‘narrator’ and ‘reflector’, giving special attention to the dramatic chapters). The following chapter attempts to fuse together the conclusions of the previous chapters in analyzing the narrator. The final chapter deals with the reading and interpretation of Ishmael, and the effect of his unreliability and oscillation between ‘narrator’ and ‘reflector’ on the structure of Moby-Dick.

References

Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Ed. Hershel Parker, Harrison Hayford. New York: WW Norton & Co, 2001.
Porter, Carolyn. “Call Me Ishmael, or How to Make Double Talk Speak.” Ed. Richard Brodhead. New Essays on Moby Dick or the Whale. CUP, 1991.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. “Narration: Levels and Voices.” Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge, 2007.
Stanzel, Franz. A Theory of Narrative. CUP, 1986.
Young, John W. “Ishmael’s Development as Narrator: Melville’s Synthesizing Process.” College Literature 9. 2 (1982): 97 – 111. JSTOR <www.jstor.org/stable/25111433> 23 Apr 2014.