Abstract:
My contention is that, although Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is a text that dates back to 1851 and hence fully belongs to the nineteenth century, many of the 10 characteristics named by Ercolino which define a contemporary novel as a maximalist novel, can be found in it. Namely, length, encyclopaedic mode or completeness or narratorial omniscience. Moreover, that, although the system novels and the Mega-Novel have some point of contact with each other, it is to The Maximalist Novel of Stefano Ercolino that Moby-Dick, as a genre, the most resembles. After a first part dedicated to the analysis of certain chapters of Moby-Dick, this thesis looks into the 10 elements which constitute the maximalist novel in an effort to see if even Moby-Dick can be considered a maximalist novel.
