In his life and work, Herman Melville traveled far, from the streets of American cities to the decks of ships in Pacific archipelagos to the tourist sites of London, Rome, Cairo, and Jerusalem. This class will track Melville’s journeys in life and literature, using various digital tools including an interactive map developed at MIT. Students will immerse themselves in Melville’s novels and poems—Moby-Dick, The Confidence-Man, Battle-Pieces, and Billy Budd among others—in order to experience the sweep of his literary and geographical imagination.
