One of the most important elements that characterizes the modern age is leaving behind the traditional life forms with the ideal of progress. While the traditional way of life was woven with the perception of the metaphysical world, the determinant of modern life shifted towards a materialistic world perception.

This situation is reflected in literary works. Herman Melville, one of the famous writers of American literature, approaches the existential and epistemological questions that individuals experience on the axis of the perception of the metaphysical and materialistic world, and by shaping the space of conflict stemming from the two perceptions around the theme of sea travel, he processes the mental transformation of modern American individual in his novel Moby Dick (1851). Similarly, İhsan Oktay Anar, who is known for his postmodern novels in Turkish literature, also dealt with Turkish modernization as a mental transformation around a sea voyage in his novel Tiamat (2022) and discusses the doubt arising from the tension between the perception of the metaphysical and materialistic world in his work.

Within the scope of this study, Melville's Moby Dick and Anar's Tiamat are examined and compared with the qualitative research method. The purpose of choosing this method is to compare the perception of the metaphysical and materialistic world in Moby Dick and Tiamat through the sea voyage theme and characters, and to argue that the suspicion and tension caused by both perceptions sheds light on the modernization experience of American and Turkish individuals. Thus, the similar and different modernization experiences are revealed within the framework of their own social and cultural dynamics, along with the tension between the perception of the sacred and profane world.

Moby Dick, Tiamat, sacred, profane, modernity.