MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 21L.705 · Fall 2010

Major Authors: America's Literary Scientists

Subject: History

Art: Gustave Doré, Gustave Doré, Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“, 1866.…, 1866 · Public domain

Instructor: Dr. Wyn Kelley
Term: Fall 2010
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 1 reading · 3 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 21L.705 Major Authors: America's Literary Scientists, Fall 2010, Dr. Wyn Kelley — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

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Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

This course’s cited books, in our reading lists: The House of Mirth · The House of Mirth · A Mercy

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MIT OpenCourseWare, Dr. Wyn Kelley, 21L.705 Major Authors: America's Literary Scientists, Fall 2010.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2010 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Major Authors: America's Literary Scientists

Before you start

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Lecture 2: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapter 32. ISBN: 9780205514083. Wilson, Eric. “Melville, Darwin, and the Great Chain of Being”

Lecture 3: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 1-9. ISBN: 9780205514083.

Lecture 4: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 10-24. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Exploration (James Cook, Wilkes Exploring Expedition, Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle )

Lecture 5: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 25-40. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topics: Taxonomy and Comparative Anatomy (Cuvier, Owen, Linnaeus), Natural History of the Whale (Beale)

Lecture 6: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 41-53. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Racial Science (Josiah Nott, Samuel Morton, Richard Knox), Optics (Goethe), Cartography (Maury)

Lecture 7: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 54-66. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Illustration and Image (Goldsmith, Scoresby, Garneray, J. Ross Browne)

Lecture 8: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 67-82. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Dissection and the Brain (Phrenology, Gall and Spurzheim)

Lecture 9: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 83-98. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Sex and Social Behavior (Scoresby and Beale, Chambers, Darwin)

Lecture 10: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 99 – 117. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: Geology and the Fossil Record (Lyell, Chambers, Cuvier)

Lecture 11: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition . New York, NY: Longman Press, 2009, chapters 118 - “Epilogue”. ISBN: 9780205514083. Report Topic: New Technology in the Nineteenth-Century (Machinery, The Railroad)

Lecture 12: Melville, Herman, “The Encantadas” Report Topic: Darwin and the Evolution of Evolution

Lecture 13: “The Encantadas” (cont.)

Lecture 14: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 9780679783343. “Economy”

Lecture 15: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 9780679783343. (cont.) “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” “Reading,” “Sounds,” “Visitors,” “The Bean Field”

Lecture 16: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 9780679783343. (cont.) “The Village,” “The Ponds,” “Baker Farm,” “Higher Laws,” “Brute Neighbors,” “Housewarming”

Lecture 17: Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings . New York, NY: Modern Library, 2000. ISBN: 9780679783343. (cont.) “Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors,” “Winter Animals,” “The Pond in Winter,” “Spring,” “Conclusion”

Lecture 18: Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories . New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2009. ISBN: 9780451531445.

Lecture 19: Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories . New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2009. ISBN: 9780451531445. (cont.)

Lecture 20: Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, Book I, chapters 1-9. ISBN: 9780192835796.

Lecture 21: Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, Book I, chapters 10-15, Book II, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780192835796.

Lecture 22: Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, to conclusion. ISBN: 9780192835796.

Lecture 23: Morrison, Toni. A Mercy . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2009. ISBN: 9780307276766.

Lecture 24: Morrison, Toni. A Mercy . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2009. ISBN: 9780307276766. (cont.)