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Abstract
Recent research in ritual studies argues that the pattern of pilgrimage qualifies as trans-historical and trans-cultural and, therefore, archetypal. While previous studies of Moby-Dick have interpreted Herman Melville's epic novel as a “symbolic voyage” or a “nekyia,” they do not explore the implications that emerge when the story of the Ishmael's journey is considered as a performance of pilgrimage. In Pilgrimage: From Gangs to Graceland, Linda Kay Davidson and David M. Gitlitz describe pilgrimages as journeys “of the soul from unworthiness to worthiness” and “from a state of sin to one of redemption” (479). We may read Melville's Moby-Dick as a story of the soul's pilgrimage towards redemption and Ishmael's “damp, drizzly November” in his soul as a metaphor for the holy longing. This essay sees into and sees through Moby-Dick as a pilgrimage.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Dennis P. Slattery at Pacifica Graduate Institute for his comments and encouragement. He also thanks Robert Piacentino Karen Robinson, and Jamie Bullins.
Notes
1. The interpretation of Moby-Dick articulated in this essay informed my stage adaptation of Melville's novel presented at Kennesaw State University in April 2008. My vision for the adaptation from its very first conception was committed to including the chapter “A Squeeze of the Hand.” For more about my adaptation and the production of Moby-Dick, see Jane Barnette's essay which follows. In the spring of 2009, I abridged the script for a revised staging that was presented at the 21st Annual Festival International de Théâtre Universitaire de Casablanca (Casablanca Theatre Festival) in Morocco in July 2009, where it won the award for “Best Performance,” and Phillip Justman, who played Ahab, was named “Best Actor.”