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?

This thesis examines the connections between three frequently associated nineteenth-century texts, Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Melville's Moby Dick, and Thoreau's Walden. It begins by reviewing the contexts normally offered for them, and then proposes an alternative one, "dialogic irony," that is based upon the complementary theoretical models of Friedrich Schlegel and Mikhail Bakhtin. After this conceptual background is outlined, the various modes of dialogic irony presented in the three works are discussed. That of Walden arises out of a close analogy between self and text: both are a series of inner voices juxtaposed with and often contradicting one another. Sartor complicates this relatively unobstructed form of selfhood through the inclusion of the Editor, whose unitary voice represents a challenge to the kind of selfhood sanctioned by Walden. Moby Dick also challenges dialogic irony, but its forms of opposition are more penetrating and various: while in Carlyle's text dialogic irony is ultimately affirmed through the figure of Teufelsdrockh, Ishmael is left stranded and displaced by the multitude of voices in his text. Melville's work therefore provides an excellent way to review and critique some of the prevailing assumptions about dialogue in contemporary criticism, a task sketched in the conclusion.

Within Judeo-Christianity there is a belief in an all perfect God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. However, in this world evil and suffering exists, so how is it possible that an all perfect God can exist? This is called the problem of evil. This thesis examines the problem of evil and how philosophers like Alvin Plantinga, John Hick, and Richard Swinburne attempt to solve the problem of evil through different theodicies. In this paper I argue that all three philosophers and their theodicies fail to solve the problem of evil. I then turn to the writings of Herman Melville, specifically Mardi: and a Voyage Thither and Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, and consider how he, as an author, struggled with the problem of evil and religion. While Melville may have struggled I argue that within his works we can find part of the solution to the problem of evil. Through these two novels Melville demonstrates that God is not good. My final chapter considers this fact that God is not good and also considers how God is not evil. In the end I argue that God is neither good nor evil which allows us to no longer have to face the problem of evil.

Diss. Univ. Köln, 2007.

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These documents supplement the previously deposited Murray and Tillett working paper: “Cataloging Theory in Search of Graph Theory and Other Ivory Towers. Object: Cultural Heritage Resource Description Networks.” http://hdl.handle.net/10150/136270. A different version of Fig 8, “FRBR Paper Tool Diagram Elements And Graphs” is included. Documents not referenced in the paper include: “Modeling The Superwork Issue,” which models the concept of a Work composed of other Works two ways; “Progressive Disaggregation,” which demonstrates the recursive process by which simple resource and descriptions composed of other descriptions are resolved to elementary graph structures; and “Serial Publication,” which highlights the pedagogical and IT system guidance role that FRBR resource description diagrams can play with respect to complex publishing phenomena. A “Find & Navigate” diagram element has been introduced in the serial publication diagram as a theoretical necessity with practical implications. The elements provide a consistent means for depicting the linking functions provided by identifiers, name and subject authority records, and prescribed and arbitrary relationships. The tables and legends found on the right side of the diagram suggest how diagram components may be expressed as “triple” style statements for implementation-minded readers.

Student Number : 7639580 - MA research report - Faculty of Humanities / This research report explores the motif of the water journey as a metaphor for philosophical enquiry in Melville and Conrad by comparing Moby-Dick with Heart of Darkness, and Billy Budd, Sailor with Lord Jim. It takes as its starting-point M.H. Abrams’s essay, “Spiritual Travelers in Western Literature”, and adapts the typology which he introduces by identifying four different kinds of fictional journey, namely, the physical, the experiential, the narrative and the hermeneutic. By concentrating on a broadly-based semiotic approach to interpretation (while also allowing for other critical possibilities), it examines Melville and Conrad’s treatment of certain pivotal issues in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. It compares the narrative strategies of the two authors and, by offering close readings of the four texts under discussion, it highlights the similarities and differences in the authors’ responses to a universe of teasing complexity, as well as exploring the reader’s engagement with such texts.

Any text which criticizes, undermines and/or transforms the encyclopaedic ideal of ordering and textualizing the world in a closed, linear fashion can be defined as a post-encyclopaedic text. This thesis explores both theoretical and artistic texts which inhabit the realm of post-encyclopaedism. In the past, critical speculation on encyclopaedism in literature has been concerned with the ways in which artistic texts attempt to live up to the encyclopaedic ideal. In some cases, this effort to establish an identity between the artistic text and the encyclopaedia has led to an ignorance of the disruptive or even deconstructive effects of so-called fictional encyclopaedias. Once we recognize the existence of such effects, we must begin to examine the techniques and possibilities of post-encyclopaedism. Hence we can see post-encyclopaedic qualities in the condensed meta-encyclopaedism of Jorge Luis Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", the disrupted quests for encyclopaedic revelation in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, and the principle of textualized world as fugue in Louis Zukofsky's "A"-12. In addition, we can create a theoretical space for the post-encyclopaedic text by weaving together Mikhail Bakhtin'sideas on the novel as opposed to the epic, Michel Foucault's notion of restructuring the closed circle of the text through mirrored writing, Jurij Lotman's theory of internal and external recoding in texts, and Umberto Eco's concept of the open text. By combining an investigation of theoretical and artistic texts which lend themselves to post-encyclopaedism, we can create a generic distinction between texts which attempt to be encyclopaedic in themselves: and texts which disrupt and/or transform the encyclopaedic ideal / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This Master’s thesis focuses on calculation of power and temperature distribution in fuel assemblies of VVER-440 reactor at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant. Theoretical section contains a brief description of VVER-440 technology, fuel and its development at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, basics of heat generation in nuclear reactors as well as an overview and categorization of computer codes, used for core calculations. Of these codes, the MOBY-DICK computer code is then described in depth, including its input and output files. The MOBY-DICK code is later on used for pinwise calculating power distribution of selected fuel cycles of defined units at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, with vizualization of output values for characteristic fuel assemblies. Results of this computation are then used for analysis, whether uneven power distribution in the core and heat generation gradient within fuel assemblies have any influence on measuring channel output temperatures, which is the pivotal part of this thesis.

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