21L.705  Mapping Melville (Major Authors)

CLASS DESCRIPTION

In his life and work, Herman Melville traveled widely, from the streets of American cities to the decks of ships in Pacific archipelagos to the tourist sites of London, Rome, Cairo, and Jerusalem. He also traveled far in the worlds of knowledge pursued through a lifetime of reading. And he explored the boundaries of texts themselves, experimenting with literary genres, styles, and creative hybrids. In this class students will track Melville's journeys in life and literature, immersing themselves in Melville's novels, stories, and poems—Typee, Moby-Dick , The Confidence-Man, and Billy Budd among others—in order to experience the sweep of his literary and geographical imagination. 

 

This seminar also introduces students to scholarly methods in the digital humanities, drawing upon traditional modes of research as well as various tools including an interactive map (Locast) and annotation device (Annotation Studio) developed at MIT and an image mark-up and text transcription tool (Text Lab) developed at Hofstra University. Seminar papers will allow students to make creative and critical uses of these resources to arrive at a deeper understanding of Melville’s texts.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS

Please purchase or borrow these editions of the texts:

 

Herman Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, ed. John Bryant (Penguin)

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, ed. John Bryant (Longman Critical Edition)

Herman Melville, Tales, Poems, and Other Writings, ed. John Bryant (Modern Library)

Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man, ed. Hershel Parker and Mark Niemeyer (Norton)