Introduction to American Lit, Week 9, Seminars
Moby-Dick: 78-106—Exploitation and Consumption
 Pseudoscience
 Use of phrenology, zoology, cetology, theology, anthropology,
philosophy, physiognomy.
 Science draws the reader into thinking differently
 Explanation of the unexplainable- natural in scientific terms- early
psychoanalysis
 Theological paradigm
 Cannibalism- Chapter 78: Cistern and Buckets
 Theology of being inside a whale- biblical reference- vs. the zoology of
the reality
 Anthropology of Queequeg
 Uncivilised and so brave
 Image, bloodiness of Tashtego’s ‘birth’
 Birth of America?
 Violence of birth
 Whalers already dead men
 Biblical rebirth- life now a gift
 Queequeg the cannibal saves Tashtego from being eaten
 Delivers him like a newborn- religious deliverance
 Significance of a man delivering- reliance on man rather than God