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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2174 |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| Creators | Rossouw, Leon Armand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 9726 bytes, 11182 bytes, 12282 bytes, 31040 bytes, 302788 bytes, 229951 bytes, 80067 bytes, 53938 bytes, 11449 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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