Herman Melville: Moby-Dick
$250
When Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick appeared, readers were confused. What had happened to the once-popular author of Omoo and Typee? Instead of thrilling stories of ocean adventure, he now had produced what one reviewer called “an intellectual chowder” much of which was indigestible. While the parts about the whale were engaging enough, few readers found Moby-Dick worth the effort. The novel received scant attention and languished, mainly unread, until its rediscovery in the twentieth century. Today, it’s hard to imagine either that what many consider the greatest American novel was once utterly obscure or that the few readers it did attract generally preferred the whale sections.
In this seminar, we will tackle Melville’s whale of a book, exploring its philosophical insights, its debts to other writers (especially Shakespeare and Hawthorne), its commentary on US politics and culture, and (of course) its cetology, the chapters about whales and whaling. Across six weeks, we will take up Melville’s challenge—“Read it if you can”—and join the Pequod’s crew on their quests for knowledge, for friendship, and for revenge. And while the novel might sometimes make us feel, like Ishmael, that we hover over “Descartesian vortices,” together we will find sufficient footing to enjoy its “serene household joy[s]” as well as its “fiery hunt.”
Text
Moby-Dick:or,The Whale (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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