Abstract

In the history of American literature, Melville is considered as one of the most prominent novelists in the United States of America in the 19th century. His full-length novel Moby Dick, since its publication in 1851, has attracted numerous studies from hundreds of thousands of critics. It is regarded as one of the greatest novels, which contains abundant knowledge that cannot be fully understood from only one angle or only one clue. Meanwhile  the concept of sublimity has existed for centuries, under the evolvement of Longinus, Burk, Kant and other famous scholars. Although there are numerous studies about Moby Dick, few attempts are made to combine the novel with the long existing sublime. This thesis, first summarizing the major achievements by different scholars concerning both Moby Dick and the sublime, will continue its research into exploring a new area in the second part where four typical images like Captain Ahab, Moby Dick, the sea and Queequeg are particularly connected to sublime. Throughout the body part, readers can easily find how sublime is reflected in these images. However, as is mentioned before, Moby Dick is such a masterpiece that no one is qualified to claim he has fully grasped its whole meaning. Studies have to continue.

Key Words : Moby Dick；Sublime；Ahab；Sea；Queequeg

摘  要

在美国文学史上，赫尔曼•麦尔维尔被看作是19世纪美国最重要的小说家之一。他的巨作《白鲸》则被称作是最伟大的小说之一。自1851问世以来，受到无数评论家的研究。研究《白鲸》的文章，每年都有新作刊出，而且不断有新意发现。尽管评论家对《白鲸》仁者见仁，智者见智，但他们都已达成一个共识，即《白鲸》具有丰富的内涵，并非通过一个主题，一个线索能深刻理解的。在另一方面，崇高这一美学概念在经过几个世纪的发展之后，经朗吉努斯、伯克、康德等人的研究，已成为一块独立的美学领域，吸引了越来越多的学者。虽然关于《白鲸》的研究不胜枚举，却鲜有文章将其与崇高相结合。本文首先概括总结不同学者对《白鲸》及崇高的研究成果。在第二部分，通过具体分析书中四个典型形象，即船长亚哈，莫比•迪克，大海和魁魁格，本文将告诉读者《白鲸》是如何体现崇高这个概念的。但是，正如之前已经提到的，《白鲸》是一部鸿篇巨著。没有人敢声称自己已经完全掌握了《白鲸》中所体现的一切意义。因此，关于《白鲸》的研究仍需继续。

关键词：白鲸；崇高；亚哈；大海；魁魁格