American Novel (371-0-20)
Topic
The Big Book: Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick'
Instructors
Jay A Grossman
Meeting Info
University Hall 218: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
How do we gauge, and thereby engage with, a narrative of disproportionate scale and encyclopedic ambition? How do we lose--or find--our place in a colossal fictional world?
One can find only a few examples in world literature of bigger, more capacious, more ambitious books than Moby-Dick. In the first place, of course, the book is long, and part of our work will be to consider the specific pleasures and challenges of reading a big book. But Moby-Dick is also big in another sense: it has proven to be a hugely influential and profoundly consequential novel. Indeed, one cannot really understand U.S. literary, cultural, and political history if one has not come to terms with its story and the issues it engages. Our work will be, like Captain Ahab, to take on Melville's Leviathan better to understand the worlds the novel has helped to shape—including, by no means incidentally, our own.
Teaching Method
Mostly Discussion. Possible student oral presentations.
Evaluation Method
It is essential to keep up with the reading and there may be occasional quizzes to gauge compliance. Possible short writing assignments. Two longer papers (8-10 pages each).
Class Materials (Required)
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (first published in 1851), and a range of reviews and critical essays, including film adaptations. Everyone MUST purchase and read ONLY THIS Norton Critical third edition of the novel, edited by Hershel Parker; ISBN: 978-0-393-28500-0.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area