Moby-Dick

Undergraduate / Graduate

In this course, students will read Herman Melville's 1851 Moby-Dick; or, the Whale. Through this text, we will explore a variety of issues still relevant to our contemporary moment, including questions of racial prejudice, environmental destruction, violence against both human and nonhuman beings, and threats to democracy. Students will engage with a variety of critical perspectives, including those from queer theory, Black studies, ecocriticism, Marxism, feminism, and book history. In addition to a thorough understanding of this one text, students will gain a deeper understanding of Melville's career, his historical context, and creative adaptations of his work since its nineteenth-century publication.