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Zen and the White Whale

A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick

Daniel Herman

In this book, Herman argues that Herman Melville may have been aware of Buddhist thought far earlier than previously considered. Scholars have long known of Melville’s interest in Buddhism in the final decades of his life (seen in the short poem “Buddha,” and perhaps even the surname of his final protagonist, Billy “Budd”). But as early as 1847, Melville had knowledge of “the grand lama of Thibet,” mentioning him in that year’s Omoo. And the five years directly preceding the composition and publication of Moby-Dick (1844–1849) coincided with the period during which interest in Buddhism turned from an obscure curiosity among American intellectuals to formal research among religious scholars in the United States.
In Moby-Dick’s wide philosophical musings and central narrative arch, Herman finds a philosophy very closely aligned specifically with the original teachings of Zen Buddhism. In exploring the likelihood of this hitherto undiscovered influence, Herman looks at works Melville is either known to have read or that there is a strong likelihood of his having come across, as well as offering a more expansive consideration of Moby-Dick from a Zen Buddhist perspective, as it is expressed in both ancient and modern teachings. But not only does the book delve deeply into one of the few aspects of Moby-Dick’s construction left unexplored by scholars, it also conceives of an entirely new way of reading the greatest of American books—offering critical re-considerations of many of its most crucial and contentious issues, while focusing on what Melville has to teach us about coping with adversity, respecting ideological diversity, and living skillfully in a fickle, slippery world.

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 219 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-61146-156-5 • Hardback • May 2014 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-61146-166-4 • Paperback • October 2015 • $57.99 • (£45.00)

978-1-61146-157-2 • eBook • May 2014 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / General, Religion / Buddhism / General

Zen and the White Whale

A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In this book, Herman argues that Herman Melville may have been aware of Buddhist thought far earlier than previously considered. Scholars have long known of Melville’s interest in Buddhism in the final decades of his life (seen in the short poem “Buddha,” and perhaps even the surname of his final protagonist, Billy “Budd”). But as early as 1847, Melville had knowledge of “the grand lama of Thibet,” mentioning him in that year’s Omoo. And the five years directly preceding the composition and publication of Moby-Dick (1844–1849) coincided with the period during which interest in Buddhism turned from an obscure curiosity among American intellectuals to formal research among religious scholars in the United States.
In Moby-Dick’s wide philosophical musings and central narrative arch, Herman finds a philosophy very closely aligned specifically with the original teachings of Zen Buddhism. In exploring the likelihood of this hitherto undiscovered influence, Herman looks at works Melville is either known to have read or that there is a strong likelihood of his having come across, as well as offering a more expansive consideration of Moby-Dick from a Zen Buddhist perspective, as it is expressed in both ancient and modern teachings. But not only does the book delve deeply into one of the few aspects of Moby-Dick’s construction left unexplored by scholars, it also conceives of an entirely new way of reading the greatest of American books—offering critical re-considerations of many of its most crucial and contentious issues, while focusing on what Melville has to teach us about coping with adversity, respecting ideological diversity, and living skillfully in a fickle, slippery world.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 219 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-61146-156-5 • Hardback • May 2014 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-61146-166-4 • Paperback • October 2015 • $57.99 • (£45.00)

978-1-61146-157-2 • eBook • May 2014 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General, Literary Criticism / General, Religion / Buddhism / General

Author

Daniel Herman is adjunct professor of English at the University of San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: Melville’s Encounters with Buddhism
1. The Prologue to Buddhist Studies
2. A Universal Absorber
3. Bayle’s Dictionary
4. Possibilities and Probabilities
5. Mardi and Other Mysteries

Part 2: Ishmael’s Way-Seeking Mind
1. Groundlessness
2. Narcissus and Dongshan
3. Searching for Ishmael
4. Whaling Life, Monastic Life
5. Ishmael’s Meditation
6. Impermanence and Interdependence
7. Philosophy, Koans, and Silence

Part 3: Moby Dick’s Inscrutable Selflessness
1. Sarcastic Science
2. The First Principle of All Things
3. Whiteness
4. The Measurements of the Whale Skeleton
5. Ox-Herding

Part 4: Captain Ahab’s Universe
1. A Factionalized Consciousness
2. Savagery Beyond Savagery
3. Faith and the Three Mates
4. The Doubloon
5. Pip, Who Jumped from a Whale-Boat
6. Ahab’s Awakening
7. Pacific

Conclusion

Bibliography

Reviews

"Moby-Dick is as vast and wonderful as the whale itself, and like the animal, it admits of many interpretations. I was not at all surprised when I read Daniel Herman's extraordinary investigation into the spiritual life of this eternally intriguing and ineffable book. His 'hyper-thesis' is almost as endlessly interesting; looking at the numinous and the ethical quandaries of Melville's work through a Buddhist lens, he provides us with a vital new view of at the novel, aptly and empathetically reappraised, for the twenty-first century.
— Philip Hoare, author, The Whale and The Sea Inside

Daniel Herman presents an original and convincing interpretation of Moby-Dick as responsive to, and resonant with, Buddhist teachings. No other book in English pursues the parallels between Melville’s greatest novel and Buddhism so thoroughly or perceptively. This bold and creative book makes a valuable contribution to Melville studies.
— Dawn Coleman, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

In Zen and the White Whale, Daniel Herman accomplishes three crucial objectives: he unfolds the historical context for understanding Melville’s encounter with Buddhism, as understood in nineteenth-century accounts of it; he performs a thorough and elegant reading of Moby-Dick as a Zen meditation; and finally he models a form of criticism inspired by Buddhism, implicitly re-aligning traditional Western ways of reading in favor of something more fluid, open, and receptive. As a 'Buddhist rendering,' this book refines Melville’s metaphysical blubber into new and subtle oil.
— Wyn Kelley, author of Melville's City and Herman Melville: An Introduction

Zen and the White Whale

A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick

Daniel Herman

Zen and the White Whale

A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick

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