Haunted Hunters Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness

Abstract

This dissertation consists of a comparative study between Moby Dick (1851), written by the American writer Herman Melville, and Heart of Darkness (1902), written by the Polish author Joseph Conrad. In spite of the distance which dissociates those two works both in time and in space, a number of affinities make them similar to a significant extent. Thus the present study offers to bring the various affinities, but differences as well into light, and discuss them thoroughly. The comparative approach to the two narratives is based on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory which considers that a text is an absorption of and a reply to another or other texts. Our study may also be supported by Julia Kristeva's concept of intertextuality or the transposition of one system of signs into another. In this sense, our comparative analysis will first discuss the themes and worldview which are unfolded through the two works. After that, the stylistic and symbolic aspect of the two works will be studied. Finally, both similarities and differences noted between the two narratives along the precedent analysis will be assessed in the light of Harold Bloom's theory of influence. Thus we shall explain the nature of the relationship between Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness or how that Conrad has been influenced by Melville's Moby Dick. In other words, we shall demonstrate how that Heart of Darkness shows both the expression of Melville's strong influence on Conrad and the latter's attempt at freeing himself from the haunting spirit of the White Whale.