Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
Listen to the interview with Dr. Hayes:
About this interview
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale, first published in 1851, is Herman Melville’s preeminent novel. The tale is well known: a mad whaling captain seeks vengeance on the monster that maimed him, thereby dooming himself and his crew in the process. More than the story, it is the language and its constructions that continue to capture the attention of readers and scholars. Melville, a self-educated former sailor, whose previous novels Typee, Omoo and Mardi were straight-forward South Sea adventure novels, had written a book unlike any before it in American or world literature.
Here to discuss the novel is English professor Ken Hayes. Dr. Hayes is an assistant professor in the Language and Literature Department at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he teaches first year composition and upper division writing courses. Dr. Hayes specializes in multimodal composition, digital literacies, and blending multiple literacies. His work has recently been published in the anthology Engaging 21st Century Writers with Social Media (2016).
Learn more
- The Melville Society: Dedicated to the study and appreciation of the 19th-century American author Herman Melville
- Read it online: Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
- Smithsonian magazine: The True-Life Horror That Inspired Moby-Dick
Credits
- Topic: Moby Dick; Or, The Whale (ISBN: 0143124676)
- Author(s)/Performer(s): Herman Melville
- Interviewee: Ken Hayes
- Interviewer: Frederic Murray
- Recording Engineer: Doug Reichmann
- Length: 00:22:52 (hh:mm:ss)
- Recorded: June 24, 2016