• Course Description
• [procedure] [purpose][texts][tools][grading] [grading scale] [attendance] [participation] [journal] [tests][final] [Moby Dick] [The Sea on the Web] [Concerns About Travel After 9-11][Where Will We Be?] [Last Updated]
• Class Schedule
• [Week One] [Week Two] [Week Three]
• Example One: Journal Table of Contents
• Example Two: Journal Entry
First Handout: "Human History and the Sea"

A Power Point Introduction

A Page Describing the class's tentative Itinerary 

A page describing the life of Admiral Horatio Nelson: Britain's most famous naval hero.

A page examining the role of the sea as a theme in songs of faith.

Scripture that comes to mind:

"And God created great whales."
                                                            Genesis.

• "Leviathan maketh a path to shine after him; One would think the deep to be hoary."

• "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah."

• "There go the ships; there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein."

• "In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."

The purpose of ENG443 Selected Topics in Literature [3 hours]  is to offer a topical course dealing with major authors, genres, "isms", critical concepts or schools, or important chronological periods. The course may be repeated. Prerequisite: ENG153G. (MVNC Catalogue 200-2001)

ENG443 Sea Literature:

This travel class is designed to offer students first hand experience of the environment which has been the catalyst of so much great art.  Beginning right after Christmas, the class will spend a week on a tall ship near St. Thomas Island.  We will be accompanying a class of science students in Marine Biology. At the end of the week our class will return to Boston where students will birth at our sister institution (and Prof. Rearick's Alma Mater) Eastern Nazarene College.  From there we will take day trips to Boston, Quincy, Cape Cod, New Bedford, and Plymouth.

The class will  meet five times a week for three weeks to discuss the nature of literature using the below readings as raw material along with a series of handouts, distributed during the semester.  Discussions will center around the sea's unique cosmological place in the human psyche,  its special quality as a setting for human endeavors and its ongoing strong appeal to readers.

Students will be evaluated by a series of three tests, two journal collections,  and a final.  Also the option for extra credit will be made available for those who are willing to do extra work.

1. to expose the student to a wide range of literary genres: poetry, drama, novel and short story all within the common frame work of literature of the sea.

2. to introduce the student to a wide ranger of authors of different cultures and ages..

3. to encourage the students to consider the different perspectives humans use to look at the sea: worshipfully, aesthetically, analytically, and scientifically.

4. to introduce some of the important common issues which authors--in spite of their different backgrounds, cultures, and mediums--often examine in the sea.

5.  to expose students to the world of God's creation in such a way, that there can be no doubt of His vastness and our place on His world.  Mission trips teach students to serve God by helping others: this trip teaches students to recognize God's almighty nature and the deep quality of his grace in that he still recognizes, preserves and loves us.

The Oxford Book of the Sea
by Jonathan Raban (Editor)
Paperback - 524 pages Reprint edition (June 1993)
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0192831488

The Oxford Book of Sea Stories
by Tony Tanner (Editor)
Paperback Reprint edition (May 1995)
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 0192824155

: Moby Dick or The Whale by -Herman Melville

Study "Cliff" Notes on Moby Dick are available on MVNC's mainframe.

The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Paperback - 127 pages Reissue edition (June 1999)
Scribner; ISBN: 0684801221 ;

Treasure Island 

by Robert Louis Stevenson, N.C. Wyeth (Illustrator)

Hardcover - 273 pages Deluxe edition (October 1981)
Atheneum; ISBN: 0684171600 ; 

Dimensions (in inches): 1.35 x 9.28 x 7.30

You may choose whatever edition you wish.

Recommended Texts:
American Sea Writing :
A Literary Anthology
(Library of America)
by Peter Neill (Editor), Nathaniel Philbrick
Hardcover - 671 pages (October 2000)
Library of America; ISBN: 1883011833 

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by Nat Philbrick, Nathaniel Philbrick

Paperback - 302 pages Reissue edition (May 1, 2001)
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0141001828 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.74 x 8.03 x 5.31

Journal Book:  For this class your journal will not be done in a loose-leaf notebook but will be kept in a standard, easy to carry, composition book.

Web pages have been created with further information; study guides and sometimes even sample questions can be found at Dr. Rearick's Reading Room  Students are expected to check out there resources.

Grading:

3 Tests:         50%
Journal:         25%
Final Exam    25%

91 to 100 is an "A"     Exceptional, a cut above-unusually good.

81 to 90 is a "B"         Well Done! A fine Job!

71 to 80 is a "C"         Good, a concrete understanding of the subject

60 to 70 is a "D"         Passing but weak

59 and below is an "F" Fell short of required understanding of material

Class Participation: Lecture will only play a part in the class activities.  Literature is meant to be talked about.  Students are encouraged to express their opinions and share their unique insights.  Each of us brings something special to a text that is ours alone.  Your comments are very important.  I have been known to add extra credit to students who show an exceptional willingness to participate in class discussion.  Furthermore you are strongly encouraged to tag along and listen to the lectures on sea biology.  The intent is not to be tested on the material but rather to be exposed to the perspective.  References to these lectures and dives will be expected in your journals.

Journal:

 Your journal is IMPORTANT!  You should write in it six times a week.  It is your personal repository for what you think about the works you are reading and about the material being covered in class.

I will be looking for the following in your journal:
 

1.  Six entries per week (totaling 17 by the end of the semester).  Going  beyond that 38 entries could indicate to the instructor the kind of student  who will achieve a high grade.  Please note that writing in your journal is not connected with days on the calender.  Remember it is also allowable to write two entries on the same day as long as both areadequately developed. Now, please note. . .

 A. Periodic class checks may occur to determine the currency of your journal entries.   So, always bring your journal with you to class.

 B. Journals will be handed in three times during the semester:
Jan 12 (7), Jan 19  (14), and Jan 28  (17).

2. A table of contents made from the thesis sentence found in each entry.

3. Journal entries must be at least 2/3 of a page long.  Furthermore, if you are one of those individuals like St. Paul with BIG handwriting-- "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand"  (Gal. 6:11)--then you should plan to write more than what I have  suggested.  I've seen some fill up 2/3 of a page with "I've been thinking  about our reading."

4. All entries should be numbered and dated (For Example: Entry # 7; June. 12, 2002 ).

5. Although I will not be grading the journal harshly concerning mechanics and restarts of thought (which require a single line to cross out some    material), I do expect the final product to be neat and legible.  Also you  should write full sentences within paragraphs--no fragmented stream of  consciousness experiments.  "Split from society--bad."  To be specific, I will be especially looking in your journal for. . .

 

A. Development of ideas.  Remember that it is not necessary to finish a work to have a good idea.  In fact waiting till you have finished can be   overwhelming. Keep your journal handy while reading.

B. Interconnectedness of journal entries.  This means that an idea you examine at one point in your journal might have relevance to another work discussed later. Works in literature should not be thought of in a vacuum.

1. A diary. Your entries should be a mixture of commentary concerning what  you read and what you discuss in and out of class about literature.   However, since this is a travel journal a huge majaority of the experiences you have from day to day at sea and on the coast will apply to this class.

2. A place for notes.  Class notes belong in a seperate notebook.   A journal is not a re-hashing of what is covered in class ("today in class we talked about. . .etc etc.") instead it is a place to reflect of the significance of what is covered.

Final Exam:  The final exam, which is scheduled for  Friday. Jan. at 3:00-4:50 pm., will be accumulative but will  be based strongly on the tests and lectures given during the second half of the semester.

You should have read Moby Dick before we leave:

A work of great and vast importance in literature in general (I thought about including it in World Literature once) is Moby Dick.  To have a class in sea literature and to not include it, is criminal.  However, the book itself is huge.  So students are encouraged to read it before leaving for the trip so that class discussion can function with it as an assumed resource.  I have made a weekly schedule for the fall [follow this link] so that students may stay on target.  Also we will be having online discussions throughout the Fall semester.
 

Sample Journal Table of Contents:

1. Entry # One  (Dec. 27, 2001)  The begining of the voyage--beginnings in all voyages.
2. Entry # Two  (Dec. 29, 2001)  Blow Ye Winds--Half the Watch is Sick on Deck and the Other's Sick Below!
3. Entry # Three  (Dec. 30, 2001)  I have Never Felt So Small In My Entire Life!
4. Entry # Four  (Dec. 31, 2001)  Gender--or the Lack Thereof--at Sea

Sample Journal:

Entry # Four                            Dec. 31, 2001

Gender--or the Lack Thereof--at Sea

One quality of the sea literature which we are reading is that by far and "en mass" most of it is by men and about men.  Ships were probably one of the last places where gender exclusion was maintained in the 20th century.  Even today the position of the US Navy for female crew members on board ship as they are separated is difficult.  Of course traditionally, it was actually thought to be unlucky for woman put her foot on board a ship's deck.  This is the central joke of H.M.S. Pinafore (named after a woman's piece of attire) and it is one of the strange qualities of the captain in Conrad's "Youth" that he actually brings his wife along with him on the voyage which turns out to be doomed.

So in the world of sea literature we find men living without women.  Because of this many men find themselves adept at skills often considered feminine.  Every sailor needs to know how to sew.  Food preparation becomes "a man's job."  No one thinks of Long John Silver from Treasure Island as being less than a man because he cooks (although it is interesting that if he weren't one legged he very likely would have had a different position.  And he is, even in all his robust health, described as "reduced.").  Food presentation is done by the ship's steward (although again in Moby Dick, this task is performed by Dough-boy, whose white faced nervousness is contrasted with the dark skinned robust characters of the harpooners he serves).

It would seem that instead of men and women, a ship's crew might have different kinds of men.  This reminds me of C S Lewis' memory in Surprised by Joy, of his hated all boy schools in which pupils were divided among "bloods" (athletes), "tarts" (those who served the athletes), and "prigs" (or what many today would call book nerds).  I'm not sure I want to pursue this much further, but it is interesting to note how humans will still divide themselves when no gender barriers remain.

Finally there is the fact that the vessels, themselves, are called "she."  The captain of the famous Bismarck tried to change this, and always referred to his short lived battleship as a "he."  However, such changes do not come easily and in testimonials from both his crew and those British sailors who hunted her down, the Bismarck is still always referred to as a "she."  Thus a sailor, with no mother, no wife, nor fiancé, still always has a woman in his life--his ship.

Concerns about Travel After Sept. 11:

The Sea and Literature Class: Selected Topics in literature (ENG443) is still on.  After consulting with both Dr. Timpe and Dr. McLaren (my contact at ENC), it is agreed that the danger to domestic flights will be minimal come January.  Security is being increased throughout the nation while the likelihood of terrorists perceiving another possible victory with the plane as bomb tactic is slight.  The recent hideous action succeeded only because the passengers believed their captors’ promise that no one would be hurt if there were cooperation. They won’t be believed again.

Where Will We Be?

Here's our itinerary for actual travel plans for the three weeks, so you know where you can reach us in case of emergencies:

Monday Jan. 7th Leave Columbus at 11:45 AM American Air 4759N Non-stop Jet

Arrive in Boston1:35 (Operated by American Eagle)

We will stay

Eastern Nazarene Colege

23 East Elm Avenue

Quincy, Massachusetts 02170

1-617-745-3000

1-800-88-ENC-88

I can be reached during the week at

1-617-786-9339 (my parents live on Wolleston Bay)

Saturday Jan. 19th Leave Boston at 12:00 noon American Air 1299L Non-stop Jet

Arrive in Miami 3:27 p.m. (Lunch)

We will be staying at the Homestead Church of the Nazarene which is just outside the Keys.

Rev. William Chambers

305-247-4018

CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE,

300 NORTHEAST 15TH STREET,

HOMESTEAD FL 33030

Attend church on Sunday Jan. 20

See Hemingway's home Monday Jan. 21 (?) It's a three hour drive from Homestead.

Sail Jan.22-24

Do Everglades on Friday Jan. 25

Return to Homestead Friday night

Rise up early (4:30-5:00) on Saturday Jan. 26th to get to Miami

Saturday Jan. 26th Leave Miami 8:24am (Yawn) American Airlines 2365L

Arrive in Chicago 10:41 am (Get Breakfast)

Saturday Jan. 26th Leave Chicago (O'Hare) 12:05 American Air 4273L Non-stop Jet

Arrive in Columbus 2:14 p.m.

Class Schedule

At present it is impossible to give you an exact breakdown of what will be covered when.  Another page has our actual itinerary what follows below is our reading assignments:

Relevant Links:

• Prof Rearick's Sea Literature Page

• Treasures@Sea is a literature based unit about the ocean. It contains web based lesson plans, interactive games, puzzles and quizzes, print activities, and experiments. sln.fi.edu For young readers but interesting.

• Online Literature Library - Jack London - South Sea Tales Online Literature Library - Jack London - South Sea Tales www.literature.org

• Literature of the Sea/ On-line Links Literature of the Sea: WWW Links On-line Texts: Bibliomania (on-line library) American Literature on-line Library Nautical Literature Page (various links to on-line texts) Homer, The Odyssey Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World C ha maine.edu

• Sea Literature  The sea has been more than just a scenic backdrop in Classic Literature... it has played the part of a character since the time of the Odyssey. The waves are part of what our myths and legends are made of. http://classiclit.about.com/cs/sealiterature/index.htm?iam=dpile&terms=%2BSea+%2BLiterature

•  A Sea-Side Walk: Elizabeth Barrett Browning  Favorite poems about nature and the environment

http://environment.about.com/library/weekly/blpoem3.htm?iam=dpile&terms=%2BSea+%2BLiterature
 
• Monsters and Mayhem of the Sea  Mel Gussow and Kenneth Hoditch edit this new edition of Tennessee Williams' works.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/weekly/aa010300a.htm?iam=dpile&terms=%2BSea+%2BLiterature
 
• The Innocents at Sea - Mark Twain Biography  The departure of the Quaker City tour of the Holy Land and some of the people onboard the ship, chapter 60 of Mark Twain: A Biography, Albert Bigelow Paine's official biography.

http://marktwain.about.com/library/biography/bl_paine_bio_ch060.htm?iam=dpile&terms=%2BSea+%2BLiterature
 
• Christmas at Sea - Robert Louis Stevenson  Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson Christmas holidays christian

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rlstevenson/bl-rlstevenson-chratsea.htm?iam=dpile&terms=%2BSea+%2BLiterature
 
• Literature of the Sea Home Page Another Sea at Literature syllbus.  Look how we are similiar and how we are different.

trearick@mvnc.edu

Last updated: Jan 3, 2002