ENG 330-01 - Studies in American Prose I (Spring)

4 credits (Spring)

A central author of the American Renaissance, Herman Melville is best known for Moby Dick, his novel of whale hunting. “I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb,” he wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne upon its publication. We will read this epic novel, along with The Confidence Man and Billy Budd. We will also read some of Melville’s short fiction: “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Benito Cereno,” for example. We will conclude with Battle Pieces, a collection of poems about the Civil War. As we read these texts, we will try to situate Melville in his own time and, just as important, in literary history.

Prerequisite: ENG 227, ENG 228, ENG 229, ENG 231, ENG 232, or ENG 273.
Instructor: Savarese