260.216 Humanities Seminar II: Analysis and Research Methods
Spring 2012
Moby-Dick
Prof: Hollis Robbins
LH 214 10:30-11:50
Office hours: T/Th 2:30-3:30 (and upon request)
GA: Gina Peck ginakpeck@hotmail.com
I. Course Objectives:
This course will involve a close reading of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) and will entail a research paper examining any aspect of the novel. Moby-Dick is celebrated today by readers and scholars but largely overlooked in its own time. During the semester we will explore the novel’s reception as well as its three main literary thrusts—Ahab's obsession with the white whale (manifested by his desire to kill it); Ishmael’s inexorable desire to know – know not just the whale but to understand the human condition; and the presentation of facts (which seems, at first, not a line of action). By the end of the semester, students will not only know the text well but will also have completed a focused research paper that explores and illuminates some particular point of the novel or its reception.
II. Course Requirements and Grading:
The five requirements for the class are: attendance, reading Moby-Dick, class participation, an oral presentation on research, and a final research paper.
Attendance for this class is critical. Much of what you will learn in this course will not only coming from reading Moby-Dick carefully and slowly, but also from class exercises and discussion. Discussion and group analysis are crucial to the process of understanding this text. You are expected not only to attend but also to participate. Three absences (excused or not) will begin to push your final grade downward. Eight absences results in an automatic failure
Keep up with the reading. I will ask one person each class to lead off the class discussion but I will also expect that any student I select that morning will be able to lead class discussion, because you will have done the reading. I will have surprise quizzes to ensure you have done so. Failure on these quizzes will push your final grade downward.
You will be required to report on your research halfway through the semester.
The primary product of the course will be a 15-20 page (including notes and bibliography) research paper on some aspect of Moby-Dick, properly documented, footnoted, and formatted. We will be using Chicago Manual of Style. http://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/Downloads/JMT_sg.pdf
Class Participation (includes attendance, presentations, possible quizzes, contributions to class discussion): 20%
Oral Presentation on Research: 20%.
Research Paper: 60%.
All written work should be your own. This means that either: A) you are telling me what you think, or B) you are telling me what you think about what someone else thinks—which means you will tell me where you found this person’s opinion, when and where he/she expressed it, and how it is related to your own opinion. You may embrace someone else’s opinion, but you cannot pass it off as your own. This is called plagiarism and it is wrong.
A note about my grading on papers and essays:
A grade of A means you have produced a paper exemplary in almost every way. You have presented your ideas coherently, you have organized your thoughts effectively, and you have supported your argument with meticulous research, properly documented. An A paper is also one that is excellent in style and voice or tone. And in an A paper, attention to form (spelling, punctuation, grammar, documentation) is as rigorous as it is to the content. Your work on the paper is superior.
A grade of B means you have gone beyond the minimum requirements of the assignment and have successfully balanced research, argument, and documentation. You express yourself more clearly, meaningfully, and imaginatively than in a C paper. Your work on the paper is good.
A grade of C means you have successfully completed the minimum requirements of an assignment. Your paper has no major problems of any kind, but there is still much for you to do to better your grade. Your work on the paper is fair.
A grade of D means your work is seriously deficient in some way.
A grade of F means your work has failed to meet the minimum requirements.
III. Required Texts:
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: An Authoritative Text. Eds. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker, 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.
IV. Schedule and Reading
Week 1 Introductions: Extracts
T Jan 17 Moby-Dick
Th Jan 19 No class – writing exercise due by 5:00 in my faculty mailbox.
Week 2 History and Water
T Jan 24 Chapter 1, “Loomings” – Chapter 7, “The Chapel”
Th 26 Chapter 8, “The Sermon”
Week 3 Chowder and Religion
T Jan 31 Chapter 10, “A Bosom Friend” – Chapter 22, “Merry Christmas”
Th Feb 2 Chapte 23, “The Lee Shore”
Week 4 Life Aboard: Politics, Cetology, and Prayer
T Feb 7 Chapter 24 “The Advocate” – Chapter 32, “Cetology”
Th Feb 9 Chapter 33, “The Specksynder” – Chapter 36, “The Quarter-Deck”
Week 5 The Whiteness of the Whale: Race and Psychology
T Feb 14 Chapter 37 “Sunset” – Chapter 41, “Moby Dick”
Th Feb 16 Chapter 42, “The Whiteness of the Whale”
Week 6 No Class Audition Week
Week 7 The Spirit Spout – Law and Symbol
T Feb 28 Chapter 43, “Hark!” – Chapter 50, “Ahab’s Boat and Crew, Fedallah”
Th Mar 1 Chapters 51, “The Spirit Spout” – Chapter 54, “The Town-Ho’s Story”
Week 8 Art, Ethics, Science
T Mar 6 Chapter 55, “Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales” - 59, “Squid”
Th Mar 8 Paper Proposals Due; Possible Quiz
March 8 PAPER PROPOSALS DUE IN CLASS
Week 9 Honor, Glory
T Mar 13 Chapter 60, “The Line” – Chapter 65, “The Whale as Dish”
Th Mar 15 Chapter 66, “The Shark Massacre” - Chapter 72 , “The Monkey Rope”
Week 10 NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
Week 11 Whaling
T Mar 27 Chapter 73, “Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him” – Chapter 86, “The Tail.”
Th Mar 29 Chapter 87, “The Grand Armada,” – Chapter 100, “Leg and Arm”
Week 12 Sex, a Doubloon, a Quandrant
T Apr 3 Chapter 101, “The Decanter” – Chapter 110, “Queequeg in his Coffin”
Th Apr 5 Chapter 111, “The Pacific” – Chapter 118, “The Quadrant”
Week 13 Fate
T Apr 10 Chapter 119, “The Candles” – Chapter 124, “The Needle”
Th Apr 12 Chapter 125, “The Log and Line” – Chapter 132, “The Symphony”
April 12 RESEARCH PAPER DRAFT DUE IN CLASS
Week 14 The Chase
T Apr 17 Chapter 133, “The Chase, First Day” – Chapter 135, “The Chase, Third Day”
Th Apr 19 “Epilogue”
Week 15 Presentations
T April 24 Presentations
Th April 26 Presentations
Week 16 Presentations
May 1 Presentations
May 3 Presentations
12/10 FINAL PAPER DUE
Suggested Further Readings
Bloom, Harold. How to Read and Why. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Chapter V,
on Moby-Dick as our national Book of Jonah and Book of Job.
Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab's Wife; or, The Star-Gazer (1999). A novel that gives a feminist
spin to Melville's plot, by imagining the woman Ahab left behind.
Olsen, Charles. Call Me Ishmael (1947, reissued 2000). An incisive lyrical reading of the
novel by the distinguished poet and founder of Black Rock College.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000).
An historical narrative that examines the genesis of Moby Dick in the story of the Essex,
destroyed by a white whale in 1820.
Schultz, Elizabeth A. Unpainted to the Last: Moby-Dick and Twentieth-Century
American Art. (1995). A critical survey of a wide range of modern visual art (painting,
sculpture, photography) that interprets Moby-Dick.
Selby, Nick. Herman Melville: Moby Dick. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
A guide to Moby-Dick and its critical history, discussing its place in an ongoing debate
about American culture and ideology.
Severin, Tim. In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale (2000). A travel
narrative that seeks to confirm the existence of the white whale that destroyed the Essex.
Szalay, Michael. “All the King’s Men; or, the Primal Crime”. The Yale Journal of Criticism 15:2 (2002). 345-370. [PN2 .Y34]
