This study analyzed the nature of pluralism in the context of literary hermeneutics. One text, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick was interpreted from the vantage point of three distinct, yet representative disciplines: Aristotelean Criticism, Deconstruction, and Reader Response Criticism. First, I briefly traced the growth of pluralism in the context of philosophy, science, and literature from the time of Rene Descartes. Second, I presented a survey of various hermeneutic approaches in the history of Moby-Dick criticism: (1) biographical and historical, (2) religious and mythic, (3) sociological, political, and anthropological, (4) symbolic and allegorical, (5) psychological, (6) structural and formal, (7) character, and (8) contemporary. Third, I outlined the theoretical foundation for each of the above three disciplines which were respectively followed by a practical application to the text of Moby-Dick. In conclusion, I argue that a school of literary thought does not control the interpretive activity as much as does literary tradition, one dominated by Aristotelean thinking and writing. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2694. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75653 |
| Contributors | POWELL, WILLIAM GREGORY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 250 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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