Graduate Office - Literature and Criticism Course Offerings By Semester

Course schedules are subject to change.  Please see Cathy Renwick for more information.

SPRING 2008

ENGL 983 Seminar in American Literature:

Herman Melville - Theorizing Authorship and the American Literary Marketplace

Dr. Susan Gatti           

M 6:00-8:45 p.m.

(Ph.D. students only)

While scholars sip coffee at Starbuck’s, how many of them realize the connection between the chain’s corporate logo and Herman Melville’s masterly Moby Dick? More importantly, how many grasp the stunning radicalism and way-ahead-of-century consciousness of a major American literary craftsman whose production veered from lucrative maritime adventures to daringly experimental, if not idiosyncratic, fiction? In a declaration of literary independence, Melville claimed that he had decided to write exactly what he wanted to write, regardless of critical approbation or market appeal. “It is my earnest desire to write those sort of books which are said to ‘fail’.”  How can readers decode this kind of statement, articulated two years before the publication of his monumental 1851 novel about a racially-diverse crew hunting a whale? What theoretical apparatuses might best enable twenty-first century literary specialists and scholars to understand not only Melville’s professional choices but also the operations of an increasingly mechanized publishing industry? Was Melville, like his burned-out scrivener Bartleby, simply expressing his “preference” to control his own authorial production? Ultimately, why did 1891 newspaper obituaries identify him as a local customs-house employee instead of a former literary star who gave up writing for public circulation?

This doctoral-level seminar will address these questions and others as it focuses on Herman Melville’s engagement with the profession of authorship as well as his vexed relationship with the publishing ethos and the reading public. Of particular interest will be his stunning departure from the publishing rat-race.  While specific texts are still under consideration, the reading list will most likely include the following:

 Typee,  A Peep at Polynesian Life

Omoo, A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas

Redburn, His First Voyage

White-Jacket: or, The World in a Man-of-War

Moby-Dick, or The Whale

Pierre, or, The Ambiguities

Short fiction: The Piazza Tales, Benito Cereno, Billy Budd, selected short stories

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

The Confidence Man: His Masquerade

Student presentations, brief response papers, a mid-term examination and a final paper will enable students to work with theoretical and critical readings to be announced. While exploring a range of critical approaches to Melville’s professionalism, this course will emphasize recent theoretical inquiries into the nineteenth-century literary marketplace. Please check with me prior to purchasing texts.

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