Online Intensive - Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
Agora Foundation Online Intensives -
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure..... Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle , and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?”
Moby-Dick or, The Whale was published in 1851 by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, and his revenge against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. An enthusiast for Melville, British author E. M. Forster, remarked in 1927: "Moby-Dick is full of meanings: its meaning is a different problem." Yet he saw as "the essential" in the book "its prophetic song", which flows "like an undercurrent" beneath the surface action and morality. "Above all", say the scholars Bryant and Springer, Moby-Dick is language: "nautical, biblical, Homeric, Shakespearean, Miltonic, cetological, alliterative, fanciful, colloquial, archaic and unceasingly allusive". Melville stretches grammar, quotes well-known or obscure sources, and swings from calm prose to high rhetoric, technical exposition, seaman's slang, mystic speculation, or wild prophetic archaism. As Ishmael says, "It is not down in any map; true places never are." We invite you to join us as we explore this great American novel over sixteen weekly Tuesday evening online seminars, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific. The Seminar Leader is Elizabeth Reyes of Thomas Aquinas College. Groups will be limited to 12 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 3 CEU credits for participation.
-- COMPLETED --
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Begins August 30 and ends December 20, 2022
Text:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Penguin (December 2002), ISBN 9780142437247
Dates and Curriculum
1) Session One
Tuesday, August 30
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Etymology
Extracts
Chapter 1. Loomings
Chapter 2. The Carpet-Bag
Chapter 3. The Spouter-Inn
Chapter 4. The Counterpane
Chapter 5. Breakfast
2) Session Two
Tuesday, September 6
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 6. The Street
Chapter 7. The Chapel
Chapter 8. The Pulpit
Chapter 9. The Sermon
Chapter 10. A Bosom Friend
Chapter 11. Nightgown
Chapter 12. Biographical
Chapter 13. Wheelbarrow
Chapter 14. Nantucket
Chapter 15. Chowder
3) Session Three
Tuesday, September 13
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 16. The Ship
Chapter 17. The Ramadan
Chapter 18. His Mark
Chapter 19. The Prophet
Chapter 20. All Astir
Chapter 21. Going Aboard
Chapter 22. Merry Christmas
4) Session Four
Tuesday, September 20
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 23. The Lee Shore
Chapter 24. The Advocate
Chapter 25. Postscript
Chapter 26. Knights and Squires
Chapter 27. Knights and Squires
Chapter 28. Ahab
Chapter 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb
Chapter 30. The Pipe
Chapter 31. Queen Mab
5) Session Five
Tuesday, September 27
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 32. Cetology
Chapter 33. The Specksnyder
Chapter 34. The Cabin-Table
Chapter 35. The Mast-Head
Chapter 36. The Quarter-Deck
Chapter 37. Sunset
6) Session Six
Tuesday, October 4
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 38. Dusk
Chapter 39. First Night-Watch
Chapter 40. Midnight, Forecastle
Chapter 41. Moby Dick
Chapter 42. The Whiteness of the Whale
Chapter 43. Hark!
Chapter 44. The Chart
7) Session Seven
Tuesday, October 11
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 45. The Affidavit
Chapter 46. Surmises
Chapter 47. The Mat-Maker
Chapter 48. The First Lowering
Chapter 49. The Hyena
Chapter 50. Ahab’s Boat and Crew-Fedallah
Chapter 51. The Spirit-Spout
Chapter 52. The Pequod meets the Albatros
8) Session Eight
Tuesday, October 18
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 53. The Gam
Chapter 54. The Town-Ho’s Story
Chapter 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
Chapter 56. Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
Chapter 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
Chapter 58. Brit
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9) Session Nine
Tuesday, October 25
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 59. Squid
Chapter 60. The Line
Chapter 61. Stubb Kills a Whale
Chapter 62. The Dart
Chapter 63. The Crotch
Chapter 64. Stubb’s Supper
Chapter 65. The Whale as a Dish
Chapter 66. The Shark Massacre
Chapter 67. Cutting In
Chapter 68. The Blanket
Chapter 69. The Funeral
Chapter 70. The Sphynx
10) Session Ten
Tuesday, November 1
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Chapter 71. The Pequot meets the Jeroboam - Her Story
Chapter 72. The Monkey-Rope
Chapter 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale;
and Then Have a Talk over Him
Chapter 74. The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
Chapter 75. The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
Chapter 76. The Battering-Ram
Chapter 77. The Great Heidelburgh Tun
Chapter 78. Cistern and Buckets
Chapter 79. The Prairie
11) Session Eleven
Tuesday, November 8
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 80. The Nut
Chapter 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin
Chapter 82. The Honor and Glory of Whaling
Chapter 83. Jonah Historically Regarded
Chapter 84. Pitchpoling
Chapter 85. The Fountain
Chapter 86. The Tail
Chapter 87. The Grand Armada
12) Session Twelve
Tuesday, November 15
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 88. Schools and Schoolmasters
Chapter 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
Chapter 90. Heads or Tails
Chapter 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud
Chapter 92. Ambergris
Chapter 93. The Castaway
Chapter 94. A Squeeze of the Hand
Chapter 95. The Cassock
Chapter 96. The Try-Works
Chapter 97. The Lamp
Tuesday, November 22
Off for Thanksgiving Week
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13) Session Thirteen
Tuesday, November 29
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 98. Stowing Down and Clearing Up
Chapter 99. The Doubloon
Chapter 100. Leg and Arm
Chapter 101. The Decanter
Chapter 102. A Bower in the Arsacides
Chapter 103. Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton
Chapter 104. The Fossil Whale
Chapter 105. Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—
Will He Perish?
Chapter 106. Ahab’s Leg
​
14) Session Fourteen
Tuesday, December 6
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 107. The Carpenter
Chapter 108. Ahab and the Carpenter
Chapter 109. Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
Chapter 110. Queequeg in His Coffin
Chapter 111. The Pacific
Chapter 112. The Blacksmith
Chapter 113. The Forge
Chapter 114. The Gilder
Chapter 115. The Pequod Meets The Bachelor
Chapter 116. The Dying Whale
Chapter 117. The Whale Watch
Chapter 118. The Quadrant
15) Session Fifteen
Tuesday, December 13
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 119. The Candles
Chapter 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
Chapter 121. Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks
Chapter 122. Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning
Chapter 123. The Musket
Chapter 124. The Needle
Chapter 125. The Log and Line
Chapter 126. The Life-Buoy
Chapter 127. The Deck
Chapter 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel
Chapter 129. The Cabin
Chapter 130. The Hat
16) Session Sixteen
Tuesday, December 20
5:30-7:00PM PST
Chapter 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight
Chapter 132. The Symphony
Chapter 133. The Chase—First Day
Chapter 134. The Chase—Second Day
Chapter 135. The Chase.—Third Day
Epilogue