Abstract: | Religion, no matter which one in particular, has always constituted an important signifying system which has been wisely explored and exploited by scholars and artists for its rich display of “ready-made” parables, symbols, metaphors, or archetypes. Taking advantage of the fact that the teachings of the holy scriptures were so deeply and vividly present in the conscience of all church-goers, artists, writers in particular, did not hesitate to use religious imagery, religious symbolism, religious discourse in general, in order to convey their meanings more easily, and surely a lot more efficiently.
Herman Melville is no exception; without the pretence of exhaustiveness, this paper tries a very brief survey of some of the instances in which religious discourse enlightens and unveils meaning in Moby-Dick. |
