Melville
ENGLISH 175M
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course offers an introduction to and critical examination of Melville’s writings. Moby-Dick is the centerpiece of the course (and of Melville’s works, and arguably of 19th-century American literature). We devote five weeks to Moby-Dick. But we also read Melville’s first novel, Typee, a commercial success that made him famous; his magazine short fiction from the mid-1850s: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”; “Jimmy Rose”; and the brilliant novella, Benito Cereno. In the final weeks of the course, we read selections from his last published novel, The Confidence Man, a title that defined an essential American type; his poetic ruminations on the Civil War, Battle Pieces and Aspects of War; and his posthumously published masterpiece, Billy Budd. The readings are organized chronologically so that we can appreciate how Melville’s art evolved formally, philosophically, and politically. He took up new genres (magazine fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry) partly as a way to revivify his career, but also in an effort to represent a new, radically transformed world.
Course Notes
Note: This course is a limited-enrollment seminar open to both undergraduate and graduate students, including PhD students in English (please contact me for enrolment details). Students in Harvard Masters' programs welcome.
Class Notes
This course satisfies the “1700-1900 Guided Elective" requirement for English concentrators and Secondary Field students.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
