This thesis examines the wonder and the terror of the sea as it is evident in Herman Melville's novel, Moby-Dick. The examined characters stand in wonder or terror of the sea, or images of the wonderful and terrifying sea reveal characteristics of these sailors. Definitions, the views of the critics, and Ishmael's observations comprise chapter one. The common sailors (Bulkington, Fleece, Perth, the carpenter, the Manxman, and the boy Pip) make up chapter two. Chapter three consists of the four pagan harpooners (Daggoo, Tashtego, Queequeg, and Fedallah). The three mates (Flask, Stubb, and Starbuck) comprise chapter four. The thesis does not examine captain Ahab or Ishmael as each alone is material for a thesis.

Graduation date: 2002

No description available.

This master thesis deals with the possibilities of traffic of nuclear power unit at thermal and power effect at the end of the campaign, focusing on VVER reactors. For a better idea of the reader the design of key components of the unit in terms of performance is analysed. Parameters of relevant components for Dukovany NPP are presented briefly. The possibilities of traffic of nuclear power unit on thermal and power effect at the end of the campaign are particularly demonstrated on the example of the Dukovany NPP. Furthermore the program Moby-Dick is introduced and the basic possibilities for its use to calculate the course of the campaign are described. At the end of the thesis, we conducted sample calculations for the duration of the campaign on the fourth block of the nuclear power plant.

My study utilizes ecocriticism, eco-Marxism, and posthumanism to discover how the sympathetic practices of both reading and ecology provide us with what I call an oiko-logic. Specifically, I read Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing. In Gulliver’s Travels we see Gulliver as an ecological threat in every journey, and Swift says that this is because we forget ourselves and deliberately choose to not attune—sometimes even choosing destruction. For Swift, we bungle things no matter which system we try, and we create degenerative devolution despite the fact that we can help. Sterne’s fundamental ecological question is how people and the entities they dwell with (living and non-living) have real interactions—which means considering domestication’s bilateralism. Humans and animals can interact beneficently in Sterne’s work, and individualism becomes oiko-logically untenable since calculations of value and affordability must include others. In Moby-Dick the whale’s values are more moral than Ahab’s, and through comparisons available in the text of Moby-Dick we begin to see inside Melville’s eco-values to the impact of a heroic animal agency as Moby-Dick follows his values—while our conscience hangs in crooked corridors. In Butcher’s Crossing and representations of buffalo slaughter, correlative human-animal experiences of thirst, ferality, and slaughter are contrasted with western bison hunters on the plains and aliens in such a way that the alien is between humanity and itself. In oiko-logic, literature and ecology share a sympathetic practice similar to the Native American sensibility of Mitakuye Oyasin: “all my relations.”

Ce mémoire étudie la façon dont Herman Melville élève la baleine blanche au rang d'une Idée platonicienne, faisant d'elle la métaphore de la mort. Sous le prisme du Phédon de Platon et de La mort de Jankélévitch, nous analysons le roman comme une allégorie, longue réflexion sur le rôle de la littérature et de la mémoire pour parvenir à transcender la mort. Si Achab est condamné dès le début à errer sur l'océan dans une quête métaphysique à la recherche de la Vérité, c'est finalement Ishmael qui, en devenant narrateur, parvient à survire au désastre. Unique rescapé, c'est parce qu'il a côtoyé la mort de près qu'il peut la faire entrer dans le récit et ainsi raconter l'inénarrable.

This Master’s thesis deals with optimization of loading patterns of nuclear reactors VVER. In the thesis is described the process of both types of fuel cycle – the closed and the open one. The middle part of fuel cycle containing the optimization process represents the crucial part of the thesis. The thesis is focused on the fuel cycles of the nuclear power plant Dukovany. The problem of the optimization is solved by using different programs. In the final part of the thesis, the program Athena for the loading patterns optimation is explained by a practical calculation for different versions of Moby-Dick macrocode and the calculated values for the optimization of the third unit of the nuclear power plant Dukovany are compared.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a historicidade da forma literária de Moby Dick. Pretende-se examinar como epopeia e tragédia atuam como princípios organizadores do enredo, orientando também as discussões temáticas presentes na obra, que envolvem tradições intelectuais e religiosas diversas, tais como o puritanismo e a filosofia iluminista. Também será analisada a forma pela qual o autor problematiza a identidade estadunidense, ao apresentar, tanto em Ahab quanto em Ishmael, alternativas à tradicional imagem do herói americano, marcado por uma inocência pré-lapsariana, tal como elaborada, p. ex., nos ensaios do filósofo trancendentalista Ralph Waldo Emerson. Se a tragédia aparece no romance, por meio de um diálogo constante com as peças de Shakespeare, conservando suas características fundamentais, a epopeia, ligada ao discurso de Ishmael e à descrição dos selvagens no navio, se manifestaria de forma mais difusa, relacionada à tentativa de um resgate de um sentimento de totalidade da vida perdido na modernidade, e articulada a outros tipos de discurso, especialmente à enciclopédia e à forma do ensaio. / [en] This dissertation intends on investigating the historicity of the literary form of Moby Dick, by examining how epic and tragedy act as plot-organizing principles and coordinate the thematic discussions in the book, which involve diverse intellectual and religious traditions, like puritanism and the enlightment philosophy. It also analyzes how the auctor raises questions regarding a national American identity, as he presents, both in Ahab and Ishmael, alternatives to the traditional image of the american hero characterized by a pre-lapsarian innocence, as described in the essays of the transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. If tragedy manifests itself in the novel mantaining its essential features through a dialogue with the plays of Shakespeare, the epic, which relates to Ishmael s speech and the description of the savage characters aboard the ship, does it on more subtle and diffuse ways, which are related to an attempt to restore a feeling of totality in life that was lost in modernity. It also appears articulated to other types of speech, especially the encyclopaedic discourse and the form of the essay.

This study examines how Herman Melville’s oeuvre interacts with Old Testament (OT) wisdom literature (the Books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes). Using recent historical findings on the rise of religious skepticism and the erosion of Biblical authority in both Europe and the United States, I read Melville as an author steeped in the theological controversies of the eighteenth-century. Specifically, I am interested in teasing out the surprising disavowals of overt religious skepticism in Melville’s writing. By tracing the so-called Solomonic wisdom tradition throughout Melville’s oeuvre, I argue that Melville had developed an epistemology of contemplation towards that body of Biblical texts. Scholarship has traditionally painted Melville as a subversive if not downright skeptical religious thinker. Most studies have produced authorial readings, using texts as forensic evidence to make assertions about the author’s psychology. Incidentally, such assessments have confirmed the narrative of Herman Melville as a grand failed author of the nineteenth century, while ignoring the ambivalent attitudes toward Biblical authority, textual history, and skepticism that emerge in Melville’s writing. The present study intervenes by re-addressing several procedural questions about Melville’s literary dealings with the Bible: How does Melville deal with the distinct topics of religion, theology, religious skepticism, and doubt? How does he think through the relationship between science and religion as well as that of personal religion and theology? I claim that Melville’s work can be read as a continuous contemplation of Biblical wisdom. His writing, I argue, deals productively rather than a destructive with the Bible, its textual history, and authority. Melville’s thinking on theological and religious subjects was not merely subversive but constructive. In mounting this argument, I contradict current scholarship that reads Melville as trying to invent a new American Bible. In contrast, I show how Melville’s philosophical forays, even when critical, are dependent on the ethics, language, and thinking of the OT.

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Captain Peleg declares, “Ahab has his humanities.” Although many facets of Ahab’s character have been explored, his humanities have not been discussed at length. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “humanities” as “human attributes; traits or touches of human nature or feeling; points that concern man, or appeal to the human sensibilities.” This definition is vague; the specific qualities which should be included must be enumerated, since the humanities of one culture may not be the same as those of another. Ahab has been associated with two cultures – The Western, Christian tradition and the Near Eastern, Zoroastrian tradition. Ahab has been a Quaker associated with Calvinists, groups which hold different views of human actions. Further, Ahab has been in an authoritative position for many years. Out of these five strands of his background, the old man’s humanities must be drawn. First, a workable definition of “humanities” can be developed through an exploration of positive attributes in Zoroastrianism and Christianity in general; qualities of particular merit in Quakerism and Calvinism can also be described. Of special interest is Father Mapple’s sermon listing a series of “woes” and “delights.” In addition, certain qualities necessary in a good leader must be examined. Second, to get some perspective on Ahab’s character on the final voyage, one must attempt to piece together the old man’s life prior to the final voyage to see what, if any, “humanities” were present. This discussion will offer some thoughts on the relations of Ahab’s name to his stance toward God, men and nature. Third, Ahab’s humanities during the final voyage may be seen in his relationships with three significant characters: Starbuck, Pip and Fedallah. In each discussion four points are noteworthy: (1) the similarities and differences in the individual’s and Ahab’s backgrounds, (2) the motivation for Ahab’s actions toward the individual, (3) the actions of Ahab, and (4) the results of the relationship upon Ahab and the other individual. Fourth, Ahab’s humanistic feelings are often expressed when he is alone. Nature acts upon the old man, and he responds. Thus the sea and sky offer him a chance to express some of his humane ideas. This study, then, attempts to answer the following questions: Did Ahab at any time possess attributes which might be termed “humanities?” Did Ahab’s humanities partly derive from specific strands of his background? Did Ahab retain all, some, or none of his humanities until his death?