This article discusses the representation of the sea in selected works of W. H. Longfellow, Herman Melville, and lan Wedde, tracing its transformation from a romantic icon to a global commons. Despite differences in t...This article discusses the representation of the sea in selected works of W. H. Longfellow, Herman Melville, and lan Wedde, tracing its transformation from a romantic icon to a global commons. Despite differences in their portrayals, all three artists find stagnation alongside vitality in the ebb and flow or the rolling of the sea. Similar to Longfellow, Melville romanticizes the sea in Moby-Dick as an ultimate sanctuary, the domain of reveries. At the same time, Melville also portrays the sea as a global commons where U.S. capitalism dominates the global order and exploits the resources. In addressing the environmental issues such as the possibility of whales＇ extinction, Melville echoes ＂the tragedy of the commons＂ lamented by Garrett Hardin. Queequeg, the ＂primitive＂ man who saves Ishmael from the wolfish industrial capitalism is thought to be modeled after a MAori from New Zealand. Today, the M^ori＇s ancestral sea-based culture is threatened by economic globalization. Wedde, a New Zealand poet, confronted the plans to construct an aluminum smelter in his country. His poem juxtaposes themes of precariousness and desolation with resilience and defiant survival, a motif mirrored in Longfellow＇s and Melville＇s portrayals of the sea.展开更多
文摘This article discusses the representation of the sea in selected works of W. H. Longfellow, Herman Melville, and lan Wedde, tracing its transformation from a romantic icon to a global commons. Despite differences in their portrayals, all three artists find stagnation alongside vitality in the ebb and flow or the rolling of the sea. Similar to Longfellow, Melville romanticizes the sea in Moby-Dick as an ultimate sanctuary, the domain of reveries. At the same time, Melville also portrays the sea as a global commons where U.S. capitalism dominates the global order and exploits the resources. In addressing the environmental issues such as the possibility of whales＇ extinction, Melville echoes ＂the tragedy of the commons＂ lamented by Garrett Hardin. Queequeg, the ＂primitive＂ man who saves Ishmael from the wolfish industrial capitalism is thought to be modeled after a MAori from New Zealand. Today, the M^ori＇s ancestral sea-based culture is threatened by economic globalization. Wedde, a New Zealand poet, confronted the plans to construct an aluminum smelter in his country. His poem juxtaposes themes of precariousness and desolation with resilience and defiant survival, a motif mirrored in Longfellow＇s and Melville＇s portrayals of the sea.
