HNAR-312: Moby Dick

In the middle of the 19th Century, before the Civil War, America was in a state of dynamic, nation-defining flux. In the midst of the political turmoil and his own, personal tumult, Herman Melville produced the definitive novel of the American 19th Century, Moby Dick. And while the book is famous for its obsessive, maniacal central figure, Captain Ahab and his relentless hunt for the monstrous white whale that took off his leg, Melville wove into the adventure story the conflicts of race, power, industrialization and colonialism that were, and, some would argue, still are at the core of American life. This course will explore Moby Dick as a work of literature and as a record of its historical moment.