Moby-Dick Course Resource Page
The core of this paired course is an examination of Herman Melville’s 1851 masterpiece of dark romanticism, Moby-Dick; or The Whale. It combines an English course centrally concerned with the novel and its creative and historical contexts, with a Humanities section devoted to putting the work into dialogue with Buddhist ethics.
Written during a period of intense industrialization in the United States, and centred on an industry that, like today’s fossil fuels, had global impact politically, culturally, and environmentally, Moby-Dick is an allegorical work of fiction, history, ecology, and philosophy that continues to compel our investigations. We will study Melville’s novel intensively, along with related works that will help to understand Melville’s novel in time and place, but also within the philosophical and aesthetic traditions that informed it, and that it helped to inform.
Written during a period of intense industrialization in the United States, and centred on an industry that, like today’s fossil fuels, had global impact politically, culturally, and environmentally, Moby-Dick is an allegorical work of fiction, history, ecology, and philosophy that continues to compel our investigations. We will study Melville’s novel intensively, along with related works that will help to understand Melville’s novel in time and place, but also within the philosophical and aesthetic traditions that informed it, and that it helped to inform.
Readings.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Monster Culture: Seven Theses" by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Moby-Dick in 2020 Podcast
"Monster Culture: Seven Theses" by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Moby-Dick in 2020 Podcast
Reading guides.
Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" & Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Cohen's "Monster Culture" & MD "Etymology" and "Extracts"
MD: Chapters 1 through 9
MD: Chapters 10 through 25
MD: Chapters 26 through 38
MD: Chapters 39 through 48
MD: Chapters 49 through 57
MD: Chapters 58 through 77
MD: Chapters 91 through 105
MD: Chapters 106 through 127
MD: Chapters 128 through "Epilogue"
Cohen's "Monster Culture" & MD "Etymology" and "Extracts"
MD: Chapters 1 through 9
MD: Chapters 10 through 25
MD: Chapters 26 through 38
MD: Chapters 39 through 48
MD: Chapters 49 through 57
MD: Chapters 58 through 77
- "See Like a Whale" exercise (see chapter 74). Source: New Bedford Whaling Museum. Click here for instructions.
MD: Chapters 91 through 105
MD: Chapters 106 through 127
MD: Chapters 128 through "Epilogue"
Lecture Material.
Resources.
Sample Essay for Exemplary Paragraph Construction
Poulin, Patrick Charles. "Moby-Dick: The Incomprehensible Monstrosity of the Whale." Monstrum 3 (September
2020): 129-138.
Poulin, Patrick Charles. "Moby-Dick: The Incomprehensible Monstrosity of the Whale." Monstrum 3 (September
2020): 129-138.
Moby-Dick Online.
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Power Moby-Dick has a fully annotated text of the novel to help readers understand Melville's allusions, context, references, and other terms, names and concepts. Click the link above of the image to the left for access.
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The Melville Electronic Library has the text of Moby-Dick with occasional corresponding pages from the first edition of the novel, for readers to see the novel as its first readers saw it.
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Read along with an audiobook.
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The best audiobook version of the novel is read by Frank Muller and is available on YouTube for free. Click below.
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To access the Frank Muller audiobook on Spotify, click the image below.
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The Moby-Dick Big Read is an open-access (i.e., free) audio archive of different readers (writers, artists, actors, scholars, and fans), reading Moby-Dick. Each chapter has a unique reader.
To access the Moby-Dick Big Read on Spotify, click on the image to the left. |
Further Reading
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The Life and Works of Herman Melville. Melville.org. Contains criticism, letters and other Melville works. Click here.
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Illustration for The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Frank Meola
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The complete text of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe.
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