Topics in the Novel
Topic: Moby Dick
Class Information
Instructor: Vernon, Matthew
CRN: 33294
Time: TR 3:10-4:30
Location: 90 SS/Hum.
Description
This class will provide a thorough exploration of Melville’s Moby Dick. The set of topics this class will cover will be as wide-ranging as the novel itself: capitalism, race, ecology, gender, fate, faith, epistemology, exploration, the sublime, and psychology. To contend with the breadth of Melville’s thought, this class will be complemented by other Melville stories as well as brief readings drawn from roughly contemporary sources. Finally, we will turn our attention to the afterlife of the novel, in its adaptation in film and its recapitulation in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.
Texts
Melville short stories
Moby Dick