491. AHAB’S LEG: DISABILITY AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION IN HERMAN MELVILLE’S MOBY DICK, PART II

Herman Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick (1851) is widely considered one of the great American novels. Its sweeping examination of American culture offers a searing critique of capitalism and of a nation still struggling to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Whether through Melville’s meditation on Native American genocide, imperial expansion, the history of slavery, religious hypocrisy, the whaling industry, and disability bias, Moby Dick invites audiences to question what it means to be American. Part I of this course began with several short readings—including selections from a Puritan captivity narrative, Transcendentalism, and Gothic literature—to provide some background for Melville’s examination of American literary history. We also considered some of the visual and dramatic art shaping his portrait of Ahab, the crew, and the natural world. Part II will focus on Ahab’s quest for the white whale through the lens of American Studies. We will consider his comm