Monsters of the Abyss: Oceanography and Sea Tales

Catalog description

We will read from the logbooks of Cook, Darwin, Wallace, and Nansen. Their discoveries and expeditions inspired and were inspired by fiction that we will also read, including Moby Dick and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The daring successes and cannibalistic dooms of the Essex, Beagle, Terror, Challenger, and Fram inspired 19th century writers to imagine what lay far across and deep beneath the oceans. These retellings--fictional, narrative, and scientific--helped formulate and fund further research. Who risks their life for a bird, a map, a widow, or an eclipse? How would these scientists and their ideas do today? Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.