Course syllabus

 

 

English 727: Melville and Conrad

(30 points) Semester 1, 2018

 

Course Convenor and Teacher:

Alex Calder

 

Melville and Conrad are both writers of the sea, ‘tormented’—as Ishmael put it—‘with an everlasting itch for things remote’. Their world of sailing ships and tramp steamers, of port cities and backwater plantations, is first and foremost a fictional setting in which peoples and customs and cultures are thrown together.  It can be a fraternal and cosmopolitan world, but it is also a hierarchical, violent, and inequitable one. The primary frame of comparison for these two authors involves understanding the political and cultural economy of their settings, and the light each author throws on processes of globalization in the age of empire. The sea is also a natural setting: what does each writer see as he peers into the sea? What is the human connection to the non-human world? What is our place in nature? These questions—at once epistemological and ecological—provide a second frame of comparison. Melville and Conrad also have profound insights into forms of emotion that go with the settings and situations of late empire—in particular, the ‘ugly feelings’ of envy, rage, paranoia, and shame,  while also throwing a discomforting light on what it means to be  a ‘well-adjusted’ or ‘civilized’ individual. But above all, this course is interested in learning from Melville and Conrad as great masters of a modern prose style, as writers who took the novel to new places, and in new ways.

 

Set Texts:

Herman  Melville: Typee, Moby Dick, Pierre, Billy Budd, Sailor (Penguin)

Joseph Conrad: Nostromo, The Portable Conrad (Penguin)

 

Week by Week Timetable

 

1:         The Secret Sharer

2:         Heart of Darkness

3:         Typee

4:         Moby Dick

5:         Moby Dick

6:         Moby Dick

 

7:         Pierre

8:         Billy Budd                 

9:         The Nigger of the Narcissus

10:       Nostromo

11:       Nostromo

12:       Nostromo

 

Coursework: 100% (equivalent of 12,000 words)

Assessment Summary:

 

Over the course of the semester students will need to produce:

 

1. Short essay, 2000 words. Close reading of a passage or chapter of your choice. Due April 18. Worth 20% of the final grade.

 

2. Essay abstract (500 words) and annotated bibliography (500 words of annotation). Due 2 May. Worth 10% of the final grade.

 

3. First submission of essay: 6,000 words. Due 25 May. Worth 50% of the final grade.

 

4. Second submission of essay: revised 6,000 words. Due June 10. Worth 20% of the final grade.

 

Notes.

 

All pieces of work  should be  handed in both  in  hard  copy  and  electronically—and  resubmitted as a final portfolio for assessment along with the second  submission  of the essay  on June 10.

 

Tasks 2-4.  Students complete a major essay, treating at least two of the texts on the course. These linked assessment tasks are intended to model the aims and processes of the professional peer review process for scholarly publication: from an abstract, to a final draft/first submission, to a revised final submission responding to copy-editing and readers’ comments. Task 4 has no specific word count, but is expected to be the equivalent of 2,000 words of new writing. The learning outcomes depend on students completing the first submission of the major essay to a high standard—setting the marks for this exercise at 50% is intended to discourage students from handing in ‘rough’ work.