The DePaul Humanities Center continues its Making the Novel Novel series on Monday, April 11 with a celebration of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s 1851 epic tale of Captain Ahab’s obsessive quest for the great white whale who devoured his leg on an earlier voyage. The evening will begin with a screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan— another tale of obsessive pursuit, albeit through space rather than the sea– and will follow with lectures, live music, puppetry, and movement performances, all aimed at exploring what Moby-Dick means to 21st century readers. Also, be sure to check out the original book sculpture created by Jamie B. Hannigan, which will be on display at the DePaul Humanities Center following the event. As you prepare to embark on a voyage through the novel’s themes and legacies, take a look at some of the following resources from the DePaul University Library to enhance your experience.
The John T. Richardson Library has several editions of Melville’s novel. Perhaps you’d like to read this one from the Great Books of the Western World series (the volume also includes Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), or this edition published by Penguin in 2001 in honor of the book’s 150th anniversary. If you’re interested in Melville’s other works featuring sailors, try this edition from the Library of America which includes Redburn, His First Voyage (1849) and White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850). For those who prefer reading on a screen, there is an online edition available from Project Gutenberg.
Scholars of all types, from philosophers to literary critics to theologians, have analyzed the content and style of Moby-Dick to unravel its complexities. For example, in American Terror: The Feeling of Thinking in Edwards, Poe, and Melville (2015), author Paul Hurh looks at how Melville embraces dark, terrifying situations that force characters– and readers– to weigh reason against their fears. In Zen and the White Whale: A Buddhist Rendering of Moby-Dick (2014), Daniel Herman considers the quintessentially American novel’s Zen Buddhist influences. For a discussion of the portrayal of democracy in Moby-Dick, pick up The Dream of the Great American Novel (2014) by Lawrence Buell.
Artists have also responded to Moby-Dick with adaptations and re-imaginings. For a musical interpretation of the narrative, check out a dvd of a San Francisco Opera production of Jack Heggie and Gene Scheer’s opera, also titled Moby-Dick. If you’d rather play the music yourself, a copy of the operatic score is also available.
What happens when a 19th century novel reaches 21st century audiences who are eager to play with the text in a context of emerging technologies? For one thing, Fred Berenson writes Emoji Dick (2010; available through I-Share), which translates the novel into emoji. Read about this project in “Text Me Ishmael,” Christopher Shea’s article in the March 2014 issue of Smithsonian.
Of course, no discussion of Ahab and the crew of the Pequod is complete without a glimpse of a real New England whale hunt. You are in luck! As part of its Silent Film Online collection, Alexander Street Press offers a 12-minute excerpt of a film called Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), which captures a whale hunt filmed by A.G. Penrod and Paul Allen, who “in small boats stood by their cameras at the risk of their lives to photograph the fighting whales.”
Happy reading and exploring from the DePaul University Library!
Event details:
Making the Novel Novel: Moby-Dick
Monday, April 11, 2016
DePaul Student Center, Room 120
2250 N. Sheffield Ave, Chicago
5:00-7:00pm – Screening of Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan
7:00-9:00pm – Live performances and lectures
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