Cycnos | Numéros | Volume 17.2 - Herman Melville : espaces d'écriture

Résumé :

The purpose of the article is to understand the process through which Melville builds up the face of the Whale as it appears in chapter 79 (“The Prairie”;). Starting from the notion of the wrinkled skin and the paradox of an engraved surface, the author examines the various passages where faces emerge before the eyes of both Ishmael and Ahab. As an act of perception common to the subject and the object, the emergence of the face opens the way to a comparison between hunting and describing. The two attitudes are fundamental to the actual looming up of the face out of the negative surface of the naked front. Through this gradual movement, the vacancy of the forehead becomes an overflowing of possibilities, and the absence of specific features the ground for endless comparisons in which is forged the unity of the worldhunter and prey, face and landscape, a whole universe included in and converging towards the all‑encompassing face of the Whale.

Date de publication : 2008-07-15