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E-book Melvillean Parasites

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Penilaian

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There can be no doubt that Herman Melville (1819–1891) was keenly inter-ested in all manner of living creatures—as Johan Warodell has noted, not only did he write “one of the world’s most famous books about an ani-mal,” one can find references to more than 350 different species in his works (68–9). For this reason, please take a moment to consider the follow-ing question: If the relationships—be they between humans, or between humans and animals—depicted in Melville’s texts were to be described in biological terms, which type of relationship would be the most relevant? To readers of Moby-Dick, in particular, the answer might seem obvi-ous: Ishmael’s description of the “universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began” (MD 274) points to predation. Not only is it easy to understand the battle between Ahab and Moby Dick as a clash between two mighty predators trying to defeat each other, but, as Elizabeth Schultz has pointed out, imagery supporting such a reading abounds in the novel, where Ahab is repeatedly associated with predatory animals like leopards, tigers, bears, and wolves (102). Crucially, in the “wolfish world” portrayed by Ishmael (MD 51), man does not only prey upon the creatures of the sea, but also upon his fellow men: Homo homini lupus est. While there is no doubt that the relationship between predator and prey is relevant to Moby-Dick, as well as to a work such as “Benito Cereno,” to my mind, there is another type of biological interaction that might prove to be equally important—if not more so—if the aim is a bet-ter understanding of what typically defines relationships in Melville’s writings. This is the parasitical relationships referred to in the three epi-graphs from Shakespeare’s great contemporary, Ben Jonson, the popular science writer Carl Zimmer and the French philosopher and historian of science Michel Serres.1 Whereas predation involves either an individual or a group of predators killing the prey—think of a lion attacking an antelope—parasitism instead involves smaller organisms feeding on a larger host. While this might, in certain cases, result in the death of the host organism, oftentimes the loss caused by the parasite is minor, and may not even be noticeable to it at all. As I see it, such uneven rela-tionships, where the weaker try to feed off the more powerful—who, in turn, might be sponging off their superiors—are, in fact, everywhere in Melville’s writings.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

809.3 GUL m

Penerbit

USA : Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP (Nordic Open Access Scholarly Publishing)., 2020

Deskripsi Fisik

265 hlm

Bahasa

ISBN/ISSN

9788202755430

Klasifikasi

809.3

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Fiction Writers

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

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