Melville’s Portrait of Same-Sex Marriage in Moby-Dick
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21204117 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven B Herrmann (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 65-82 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Jung Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1934-2039 • E-ISSN: 1934-2047 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/jung.2010.4.3.65 |
| OpenAlex | W2148633434 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
Herman Melville’s writings include portrayals of same-sex eros. In his own life, he encountered socially acceptable homosexuality when he lived on the Island of Nukakiva in the Marquesas in 1842. There he encountered a tayo, a homosexual who cared for him and shared his bed. In a number of novels prior to Moby-Dick, Melville provided fictional sketches of tayo figures. In Moby-Dick, Melville describes Ishmael’s “wedding” with Queequeg, his “bosom friend,” tayo, or “bridegroom” as a “marriage,” or “hearts’ honeymoon,” between the two men. Thus, out of the indigenous rites of Polynesia, Melville formed his portrait of same-sex marriage. In this article, the author examines the archetype of same-sex marriage as a calling (“Call me Ishmael”). The author argues that Melville’s portrait of same-sex marriage, and his passionate love-letter to his friend and mentor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, with its “infinite fraternity of feeling,” has universal significance for our times
Archetype · Art · Art history · Feeling · Fraternity · Literature · Portrait · Same sex · Sociology · Theology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · History · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Short Stories in Global Literature
| Highly cited | No |
|---|