ABSTRACT

This article examines chapter 108, ‘Ahab and the Carpenter’, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick to explore how the making of Ahab’s prosthesis highlights the problems of trauma, embodiment, and phantom limb pain. Turning the decks of the Pequod into a Shakespearean stage, Melville puts the temporal expanse of Ahab’s vengeance on display as the ivory leg encompasses the natural leg of the past, the cavity of the present, and the prosthesis the captain will wear into the future. The article discusses Ahab’s whalebone leg alongside Captain Boomer’s whalebone arm in arguing that the prosthesis defines not just the avenger’s body, but his relation to other bodies as well.

摘要

本文研究了赫尔曼·梅尔维尔 (Herman Melville) 的《白鲸记》中的第 108 章“亚哈和木匠”，以探讨亚哈假肢的制作如何突出创伤、具身化和幻肢痛​​等问题。将Pequod的甲板变成莎士比亚的舞台，梅尔维尔展示了亚哈复仇的时间范围，因为象牙腿包括过去的自然腿、现在的空腔和船长将在未来佩戴的假肢。文章讨论了亚哈的鲸骨腿和布默船长的鲸骨手臂，认为假肢不仅定义了复仇者的身体，还定义了他与其他身体的关系。