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Class number:
2691
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Title: Melville |
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Department: English |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: No |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 15 |
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Current enrollment: 15 |
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Available seats: 0 |
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Start date: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 |
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End date: Friday, May 8, 2026 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM, MC - 305 |
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Instructor(s): Hager, Christopher |
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Prerequisite(s): None |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement |
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Note: For majors enrolled before December 2023, this course fulfills the 1700-1900 requirement. For majors enrolled after January 2024, this course fulfills the requirement of a course in literature after 1800. |
Course Description:
Though a superstar during his early career, Herman Melville watched his reputation decline as his literary ambitions escalated. One review of his seventh novel bore the headline, "Herman Melville Crazy." Not until the 20th century did even his best-known work, Moby Dick, attract considerable attention, but it now stands at the center of the American literary pantheon. Melville's work merits intensive, semester-long study not only because he is a canonical author of diverse narratives—from maritime adventures to tortured romances to philosophical allegories—but also because his career and legacy themselves constitute a narrative of central concern to literary studies and American culture. Through reading and discussion of several of his major works, we will explore Melville's imagination, discover his work's historical context, and think critically about literary form. |