Abstract

This dissertation examines Walter Benjamin's aesthetic theory, which claims that the symbolic work of art has to be fragmented by allegory in order to be completed as a work of art. Allegory shatters, in Benjamin's terms, "the semblance of totality" of the symbol. In the symbol, signifier and signified are unified as a whole; yet, in allegory, they are separated from each other. Melville's Typee, Mardi, and Moby Dick are analyzed to illustrate Benjamin's ideas. I also pay special attention to Melville's consistent attempts to expose the symbol as the seductive face of the destructive nature, a belief which is also shared by Benjamin. ;In the introduction, I explain Benjamin's ideas of the symbol and allegory, and the reason why he privileges the latter. For Benjamin and the baroque allegorist, nature is perceived as a ruin; history, a catastrophe. Allegory, because of its brokenness, is the most appropriate form for expressing the "natural history" described by Benjamin. The symbol, because of its organic nature, fails to see the reality of history and nature. ;The following chapters examine Melville's use of allegory, and how the symbol is created only for the sake of being destroyed by allegory. Melville uses the image of the Noble Savage as the symbol of the Typees. However, their symbolic face only conceals their cannibalism. Yillah starts as the beautiful symbol that Taji is searching for, but gradually her symbolic unity is broken. She becomes an emblem, and various meanings are given to her. For Ishmael, nature has a symbolic appearance, which only conceals death hidden within it. The totality of the symbolic whole is shattered by Ishmael's allegorization of different parts of the whole. Through allegorization, Melville fragments the symbol, breaks its illusive totality of signifier and signified, and gives arbitrary meanings to the emblems