Ishmael as Cross-cultural Educator : A Reading of Moby-Dick

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Abstract

This paper argues that Moby-Dick can be read as a textbook on cross-cultural understanding and interaction, and that its narrator and central figure, Ishmael, proves himself an excellent cross-cultural educator. In the introduction, the relationship between this particular reading of Moby Dick and the ideas of well-known Melville critics.Matthiessen, Chase, and Arvin.is discussed. Then, after an examination of the difficulties that the first-person narration of the somewhat crazy Ishmael present, both the cross-cultural relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg and the way in which the whale and whaling become a metaphor for cross-cultural experience are examined in detail. Finally, seven lessons on the nature of cross-cultural understanding that Ishmael provides for readers are outlined. It is concluded that, though Moby Dick is "a very big book"(Kazin), one not easily summarized, it remains a book greatly concerned with cross-cultural understanding.and misunderstanding.

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