Literature and Social Pathologies: Ahab’s Masculinity as a Distortion of Care and Faith
This article examines Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick using the lens of care and faith, with the aim of depicting a pathological type of masculinity represented by the character of Captain Ahab. I situate Melville’s novel in a culture where liberalism, capitalism, and imperialism were dominant sem...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Review |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Springer Science Business Media B. V.
2023
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In: |
Pastoral psychology
Year: 2023, Volume: 72, Issue: 1, Pages: 49-63 |
Further subjects: | B
Masculinity
B Book review B Ahab B Imperialism B Pastoral Theology B Faith B Care B Moby-Dick B Capitalism B Liberalism |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | This article examines Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick using the lens of care and faith, with the aim of depicting a pathological type of masculinity represented by the character of Captain Ahab. I situate Melville’s novel in a culture where liberalism, capitalism, and imperialism were dominant semiotic systems that, I argue, served as key factors in shaping and supporting a type of masculinity wherein one possesses a maniacal preoccupation with one’s goal or self-interests that is accompanied by instrumentalized, conditional care (if present), and, correspondingly, an instrumentalized and contractual faith. |
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ISSN: | 1573-6679 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11089-022-01042-y |