English Language and Literature ETDs
Publication Date
Spring 4-13-2023
Abstract
This study employs the narrator of Moby Dick, Ishmael, as a focal critic to interpret several potential examples of ominous writing on the wall, or menetekel. It concludes that the message of such writing, owing primarily to its irrevocably deictic relationship with the surface it is written on, is fundamentally apocalyptic in nature, regardless of its explicit content. The physical walls of the “kingdom” are incorporated into the grammar of the menetekel as object, so that its elemental message, “I was here,” becomes not only an admission of criminal trespass, but also a direct threat to the current order and the paradigm of private property.
Degree Name
English
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
English
First Committee Member (Chair)
Dr. Scarlett Higgins
Second Committee Member
Dr. Jesus Costantino
Third Committee Member
Dr. Troy Lovata
Fourth Committee Member
Dr. Iain Thomson
Language
English
Keywords
menetekel, pawnee buttes, graffiti, landscape studies, moby dick, romantic literature
Document Type
Dissertation
Recommended Citation
Cronkhite, Todd Tyner. "Menetekel: Ishmael's Black Whale and the Semiotics of Doom." (2023). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/342
Permissions for Fig. 17 - Walter White Memorial by Mariya Tseptsura
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