Medievalists Read Moby Dick (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medieval Studies, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.-Fort Wayne
Organizer Name
Damian Fleming
Organizer Affiliation
Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.-Fort Wayne
Presider Name
Damian Fleming
Paper Title 1
Encyclopedism
Presenter 1 Name
Suzanne Conklin Akbari
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 2
Navigating Your Mid-Life Hypos: Journeys and Guides in Dante and Moby Dick
Presenter 2 Name
Jennifer Fast
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Dallas
Paper Title 3
The Sermon
Presenter 3 Name
Andrew Scheil
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Paper Title 4
Picturing the Whale: Emoji Dick and the Limits of Adaptation
Presenter 4 Name
Kaylin O'Dell
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Cornell Univ.
Paper Title 5
The Narrative Structure of Moby Dick as a Quest
Presenter 5 Name
Serena Howe
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Univ. of Dallas
Paper Title 6
Providence and the Sea in the Moby Dick
Presenter 6 Name
Tiffany Schubert
Presenter 6 Affiliation
Univ. of Dallas
Start Date
10-5-2018 1:30 PM
Session Location
Fetzer 1045
Description
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has long been recognized and studied as one of the highlights of nineteenth-century American literature and among the most influential novels ever written. This novel is also deeply appealing to a wide range of medievalists, who are interested in its form, sources, narrative, and production history, just name a few aspects. Our roundtable gathers a range of medievalists to interrogate the appeal of this text to scholars with our particular training. What is it like for a medievalist to read Moby Dick against the background of medieval texts and material culture? How might we contribute to a broader understanding of this text using the tools of medieval studies? We envision a series of short presentations on a select number of these issues followed by a capacious discussion of this text as viewed through our particular scholarly lenses. In a world where the humanities are increasingly dealing with scarcer and scarcer resources, we hope to open a discussion with our colleagues in American Studies and demonstrate to the wider scholarly world the benefits of broad interdisciplinary collaboration.
Damian Fleming
Medievalists Read Moby Dick (A Roundtable)
Fetzer 1045
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has long been recognized and studied as one of the highlights of nineteenth-century American literature and among the most influential novels ever written. This novel is also deeply appealing to a wide range of medievalists, who are interested in its form, sources, narrative, and production history, just name a few aspects. Our roundtable gathers a range of medievalists to interrogate the appeal of this text to scholars with our particular training. What is it like for a medievalist to read Moby Dick against the background of medieval texts and material culture? How might we contribute to a broader understanding of this text using the tools of medieval studies? We envision a series of short presentations on a select number of these issues followed by a capacious discussion of this text as viewed through our particular scholarly lenses. In a world where the humanities are increasingly dealing with scarcer and scarcer resources, we hope to open a discussion with our colleagues in American Studies and demonstrate to the wider scholarly world the benefits of broad interdisciplinary collaboration.
Damian Fleming