Chasing the White Whale
ISBN: 9781587299407
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University of Iowa Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Whales in literature.; Whaling in literature.; Sea stories American;

Dowling, a lecturer in English at the University of Iowa, uses the annual Moby-Dick Marathon reading at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts as a point of entry for examining the literary classic and its place in society today. According to Dowling, the 24-hour reading works as "a democratic chorus of voices, crossing national and gender lines with the same manic radical equality as the novel itself." He goes on to compare the attraction to the marathon reading and the remote allure of whaling and likens event-goers to "the common sailor of the antebellum era [who] found relief-sexual, artistic, narrative, and alcoholic-anywhere he could." Dowling's parallels and analyses, though comprehensive, can be overwhelmingly textual and complex. Nevertheless, he provides an innovative mix of literary criticism and case study. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

David Dowling is a lecturer of English at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Capital Letters: Authorship in the Antebellum Literary Market (Iowa, 2008) and numerous articles on nineteenth-century literature and culture.


hidden image for function call