『모비딕』의 서술자 이슈마엘의 일상적 서사를 통한 공함의 자각

Awakening toward Emptiness through Ishmael’s Narrative on Everyday Whaling in Moby-Dick

This paper discuses the possibility that Ishmael’s narrative on everyday whaling leads the reader to approach the possibility of awakening toward Buddhist emptiness. In this attempt, this paper tries to prove that this awakening does not come from the core of the story, which is Ahab’s intense searching for the white whale, but from Ishmael’s narrative on everyday whaling. His description on mundane labors on whaling not only suddenly expands to philosophical ideas but also finishes without forming solid messages. Therefore, the reader fails to fully understand the text and this failure helps the reader to glimpse the openness of emptiness. In Buddhism, emptiness is the ultimate and universal quality of the world. Emptiness, however, can not be penetrated by any forms of cognition. Therefore, at the moment the reader fails to understand the text and form clear messages, he/she immediately has the possibility to open himself/herself to the emptiness.