Objectives This Seminar Pursues a Close Reading of Moby-Dick (1851), Often Called the Greatest American Novel. Why Was This S

Home , Age of the Dragons, Essex (whaleship), In the Heart of the Sea, The Sea Beast

Spring 2014 Moby-Dick Unbound 1

Objectives This seminar pursues a close reading of Moby-Dick (1851), often called the greatest American novel. Why was this story of a tragic sea voyage so neglected in its day, and so celebrated by later genera- tions? To explore its twin lines of action—Ahab's drive to kill a white whale versus Ishmael's quest to know it—we use the methods of history, literature, art, religion, philosophy, and ecology. Of special interest are the ways Melville anticipates recent environmental thought, depicts a globalized culture, and dramatizes the national struggle to reconcile faith and fact, race and justice.

Texts (at Labyrinth or use ISBN to order from Amazon)

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: An Authoritative Text. ISBN 9780393972832

Requirements Weekly meetings feature required readings (120 pages a week), close examination of key passages, and intensive discussion. Journal entries are due in weeks 6 and 12.

01. Extracts Read: Etymology, Extracts, (pp 7-17) Topics: Text and (e)reader

02. Loomings Read: Ch. 1-8 (pp 18-46) Topics: History and water

03. Chowder Read: Ch. 9-18 (pp 47-85) Topics: Religion and prayer

04. Going Aboard Read: Ch. 19-32 (pp 86-124) !Topics: Politics and cetology 05. The Whiteness of the Whale Read: Ch. 33-44 (pp 125-169) Topics: Psychology and race

06. The Spirit-Spout Read: Ch. 45-54 (pp 170-213) Topics: Law and symbols Journal entries 01-06: Sat Mar 15

Spring Break !

He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has over- runningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. Spring 2014 Moby-Dick Unbound 2 ! 07. Cutting In Read: Ch. 55-72 (pp 214-256) Topics: Art and ethics Mid-term conference: Mon Mar 24

08. The Honor and Glory of Whaling Read: Ch. 73-86 (pp 257-295) Topics: Science and anatomy

09. The Doubloon Read: Ch. 87-100 (pp 296-339) Topics: Sex and gender

10. The Quadrant Read: Ch. 101-118 (pp 340-378) Topics: Evolution and fate

11. The Chase Read: Ch. 119-135 (pp 379-427) Topics: Music and survival

12. Close Read: Epilogue (p 427) Topics: Endings and silence !Journal entries 07-12: Sat May 03 !End-term conference (optional) Mon May 12 Final Project: May 19, 2014 (See Next Page)

Ofﬁce Hours By appointment, on Thursdays before or after class E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.princeton.edu/~howarth/

The intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity, my God! who can tell it? — The Castaway. Spring 2014 Moby-Dick Unbound 3

!Final Project (Reading Period) Objective A contribution to celebrating the cultural afterlife of Moby-Dick, due on May 19, 2014. You should select works of art or information that we have not studied. You may create an essay, review, interview, slide show, script, video, or web site. !Length: 3,000-5,000 words or up to 10 mb. Please submit all projects as electronic files. Sources Adaptations: versions of MD in film, television, radio, stage, music, comics, literature. Other uses: a list of film, television, opera, stage, and pop music versions. Current News: items that reflect current interest in and the relevance of MD. Video: thousands of YouTube films that interpret or comment on MD. MD Books: a listing of MD editions, criticism and scholarship. MD Scholar: a listing of MD books, articles, and documents. !Internet Archive: some odd/eccentric versions of MD, now in public domain. Suggestions "The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer." — D. H. Lawrence Select 2-3 scenes in adapted versions of MD and compare to their literary sources. The Making of X, Y, Z: tell the page-to-screen story of any film version you wish. How does MD adapt to other languages & cultures? (For example, Modern Korean Cinema) Really bad versions: See The Sea Beast (1926) and Age of the Dragons (2011). Truly great versions: See Orson Welle's Moby-Dick Rehearsed (1955). The Hunger Games, book and film, as a postmodern MD epic. Ahab and Ishmael: how are they rendered in other media? Defending (or attacking) Ahab (or Ishmael). How does he fare in the later versions? Decoding MD for non-readers: Cliff's Notes, SparkNotes, Schmoop. Music and Moby: what are the significant elements in musical versions of MD? Illustrating MD: from Kent to Kish, comparing illustrated editions (or making your own). A cartoon history of MD: select a dozen images or panels and comment on their qualities. Know Dick: do the later versions get and transmit Melville's sexual humor? Save the Whales: MD as a contribution to environmental knowledge. Race Matters: MD and the rise of racial/social justice in a global economy. Beasties: MD in the tradition of monster-lit, from Odyssey to the Temeraire books. ! Books Review any of the following books (see Firestone catalog or Amazon.com): Bloom, Harold. How to Read and Why. (2000). Chapter V: MD as our Book of Jonah and Book of Job. Busch, Frederick. The Night Inspector: A Novel (1999). Melville's later years, working in a customs house. Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab's Wife; or, The Star-Gazer (1999). Imagining the woman Ahab left behind. Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000). The origins of MD. ______. Why Read Moby-Dick? (2011). Stresses navigation and Ahab; less good on cetology. Schultz, Elizabeth A. Unpainted to the Last: Moby-Dick and Twentieth-Century American Art. (1995). Visual art survey. Severin, Tim. In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale (2000). Confirming the Essex story.