{"id":231434,"date":"2025-06-10T07:35:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T11:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=231434"},"modified":"2025-06-06T15:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:36:35","slug":"international-melville-conference-at-uconn-avery-point-to-celebrate-moby-dick-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/06\/international-melville-conference-at-uconn-avery-point-to-celebrate-moby-dick-author\/","title":{"rendered":"International Melville Conference at UConn Avery Point to Celebrate \u2018Moby-Dick\u2019 Author"},"content":{"rendered":"

In almost the same way the rope aboard the Pequod \u201cfolds the whole boat in its complicated coils,\u201d so too have the details of the 14th International Melville Society Conference<\/a> around UConn\u2019s Mary K. Bercaw Edwards.<\/p>\n

Who knew planning a weeklong event at UConn Avery Point<\/a> for 150 Herman Melville scholars from lands as far away as those along the route in the hunt for Moby Dick would imitate passages from the English professor\u2019s favorite chapter in the novel by the same name?<\/p>\n

The whaling line, Melville writes of the rope, is both \u201cmagical, sometimes horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But once the scholars arrive and the opening plenary address begins on Monday, June 16, Bercaw Edwards says she\u2019ll settle in and enjoy what the week has to offer as the UConn campus and southeastern Connecticut show off their maritime heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an amazing conference. The talks look outstanding, and everyone is so excited to be in this location,\u201d Bercaw Edwards says.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cOceanic Melville,\u201d the conference follows a 2022 gathering in Paris and other global destinations through the years including Poland in 2007, Israel in 2009, Italy in 2011, and Japan in 2015. The first was held in Greece in 1997, with gatherings planned generally biennially.<\/p>\n

\"A
The latest exhibition, “Oceanic Melville,” at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art features artwork inspired by Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick,” including artist Robert Del Tredici’s mixed media print, “Torn Body, Gnashed Soul.” The exhibition at UConn Avery Point is open through June 19. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bercaw Edwards says The Melville Society<\/a>, an international organization dedicated to the study of the author, asked her to arrange a conference at Avery Point in part because of its proximity to Mystic Seaport Museum<\/a> just 15 minutes down the road where the Charles W. Morgan<\/a>, the last wooden whaleship in the world, is on display.<\/p>\n

The Morgan was launched in 1841 from New Bedford, Massachusetts, built seven months after and 7 miles away from the Acushnet, the whale ship on which Melville served as a crewmember in the Pacific Ocean before writing \u201cMoby-Dick,\u201d making the Morgan as identical as possible to the Acushnet.<\/p>\n

While several days of panel discussions and other academic talks (some are open to the public) on topics ranging from Melville in popular culture to Melville and his animals are the centerpiece of the conference, Bercaw Edwards says a daylong trip to the Museum, where she works in the summer, and the chance to get up close with the Morgan is a highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll see us raise sails, lower and raise the whale boat. They\u2019ll get to pull on the halyards, which will give them a visceral feeling of what it\u2019s like to set sail,\u201d she says of conference attendees. \u201cWe\u2019re also going to give them an opportunity to actually row in whale boats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants\u2019 day at the Museum also will include the daily activities available to the public, including a concert by staff musicians playing and singing the songs mentioned in \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d and a 35-minute play with three actors using Melville\u2019s words to tell the story of Ahab and the whale.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonstrous: Whaling and its Colossal Impact,\u201d<\/a> the Museum\u2019s newest exhibition that opened in late May and runs through Feb. 16, 2026, by happenstance coincides with the conference.<\/p>\n

The exhibition has been built around Mexican American artist Jos Sances\u2019 scratchboard mural, \u201cOr, The Whale,\u201d a 51-foot-long artwork the same size as a juvenile sperm whale. Bercaw Edwards says Sances created the piece after reading and finding inspiration in \u201cMoby-Dick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSances is a screen printer and a scratchboard artist who\u2019s from Mexico and lives in California \u2013 and then he read \u2018Moby-Dick\u2019 and was driven to make this mural,\u201d she says. \u201cWith his background, there was nothing that would have drawn him naturally to reading a book by a white New England author, but he did just like so many others do.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Deep and Important Questions’<\/strong><\/h4>\n

From the perspective of Pequod crewmember Ishmael, \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d tells the story of Captain Ahab\u2019s trek across the globe for vengeance against the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which took off his leg during a previous encounter.<\/p>\n

Some chapters are incredibly dense with precise details about whaling and sailing, while others are so action-packed the story moves quickly. It\u2019s considered among the greatest American novels and for many English majors might be considered their very own white whale.<\/p>\n

\"A
“Quenchless Feud (Ahab)” from artist Jos Sances is on display as part of “Oceanic Melville” at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bercaw Edwards says she\u2019s oftentimes amazed that today\u2019s audiences are so interested in something written in 1851 – that\u2019s nearly 175 years ago – especially given that it\u2019s authored by a dead, white male and features the killing of whales.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems as politically incorrect as it can possibly be, and yet it feels as if it\u2019s still on the ascendancy,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a long, dense, tough book, and yet it\u2019s immensely popular. There are graphic novels, movies, plays, concerts, memes, and T-shirts about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she once witnessed a colleague who writes about Melville in popular culture mention the word \u201ctattoo\u201d during a talk, and afterward a throng of people gathered around to show him the Melville-inspired artwork on their biceps, forearms, and calves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just amazing to me that Melville is so popular. I think it\u2019s because he asks all kinds of deep and important questions: Is there truth? Is there justice? Is there anything beyond our human existence? How do we go about life? And he doesn\u2019t give us any answers. Every time you think \u2018OK, that\u2019s the answer,\u2019 he undercuts it. He wants you to realize there are no answers, but he\u2019s asking these great questions. I think that\u2019s part of why it\u2019s still eternal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Never mind the beauty of Melville\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of Chapter 1, Melville writes, \u2018It is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in.\u2019 I\u2019ve always loved that. We should all get along,\u201d Bercaw Edwards says. \u201cI also love, \u2018Ignorance is the parent of fear.\u2019 People are afraid of things they don\u2019t know. It\u2019s so true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pequod third mate Flask fears butter – yes, a stick of butter – Bercaw Edwards continues, noting the humor in the book. He feels as if he\u2019s not entitled to the spread: \u201cSo when they\u2019re all eating with Ahab \u2013 Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask – they\u2019re always really quiet because they\u2019re kind of nervous around Ahab, and Flask, of course, never dares to take butter. Then Melville writes, \u2018For Flask is a butterless man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading \u2018Moby-Dick\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Every time \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d appears on a syllabus in one of Bercaw Edwards\u2019 classes, she says she gives it a fresh read, no specific routine around it, no tableside requisite cup of black tea to share with Ahab.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s delighted in its humor during her at least 35 times rereading it through the years \u2013 so many instances that she finds herself quoting it as she goes along. And when she gets to her favorite chapter – number 60, \u201cThe Line” – she knows she\u2019ll get the best Melville has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s describing the whale line, which is attached to the harpoon and thrown into the whale. He has really basic information about the line, about rope, and then it\u2019s infused with all kinds of humor,\u201d she says, quoting his description of hemp: \u201cHemp is a dusky, dark fellow, a sort of Indian; but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian to behold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melville then builds to what Bercaw Edwards calls a \u201cmetaphysical lift,\u201d explaining that the whale-line surrounds the boat, crisscrossing it and traveling by each of the crewmembers. He then notes that we\u2019re all surrounded by ropes, and no one knows when it will take you to eternity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s set up like a sermon,\u201d she says of the chapter. \u201cSermons pick apart a line from biblical text. This does the same thing. It just does it with real line rather than a line of text.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, Bercaw Edwards can relate to Melville and journeys around the world better than most.<\/p>\n

As her friends shifted into high school upperclassman status at 16 years old, she and her family went to sea, she says. The family of five – Mom and Dad, sister and brother, and her – sailed around the globe on a journey that took 3\u00bd years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went to college, I knew I wanted to be an English major, but I was thinking I would study Henry James,\u201d she says of the American British author. \u201cThen my professor suggested that with my sailing background I should be a Melville scholar \u2013 and now I can\u2019t imagine anything else. All my scholarship has been on Melville, with a little on Joseph Conrad and Jack London, but always centered on Melville.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledges, though, that for some, reading \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d might be daunting, to which she offers four words of advice: Visit Mystic Seaport Museum.<\/p>\n

Seeing the whale boat demonstrations and getting onboard the Morgan to imagine sleeping in its belly every night for between two and five years oftentimes help people get through those challenging whaling chapters.<\/p>\n

She further recommends listening to the story as an audio book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people hear it read aloud, they\u2019ll often see how funny it is. I mean, it\u2019s full of humor, and that\u2019s often lost when people get stuck on the fact that this is The. Great. American. Novel,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

From July 31 to Aug. 1, Mystic Seaport Museum will host its 40th annual \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d Marathon reading of the book<\/a> to coincide with Melville\u2019s Aug. 1 birthday. Readers gather onboard the Morgan and take about 24 consecutive hours to get through the 135 chapters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I always notice is people listening and then they start to laugh and feel embarrassed, like they\u2019re not supposed to. This is The Great American Novel, but of course we\u2019re supposed to laugh,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Public Events and AVS Exhibition<\/strong><\/h4>\n

With grant funding from Connecticut Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, several events during The Melville Society conference<\/a> will be open to the public, Bercaw Edwards says.<\/p>\n

The opening plenary talk at 10:15 a.m. on Monday, June 16, \u201cOther Seas: Sailing Without Ahab,\u201d will come from St. John\u2019s University English professor Steve Mentz, who\u2019s figured prominently in the field of blue humanities. He will discuss how humans engage with water, along with the history and theory of water-centric thinking.<\/p>\n

\"A
“The Pod” from artist George Klauba is on display as part of “Oceanic Melville” at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 18, \u201cDoes the Whale Diminish? \u2013 Will He Perish? Cross-Disciplinary Currents in Conversation\u201d will offer a panel discussion with Anne Cohen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, conservation biologist and author Joe Roman, and Portuguese marine researcher Rui Prieto.<\/p>\n

The closing plenary address at 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, also is open to the public. It features Lenora Warren from Cornell University, one of the leading scholars about Melville and race. Her talk, \u201cMelville\u2019s Ghosts,\u201d dovetails with the day also being Juneteenth.<\/p>\n

At the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art<\/a> at Avery Point, the exhibition \u201cOceanic Melville\u201d<\/a> comes together thanks to curator and gallery director Jeanne Ciravolo, along with Bercaw Edwards and Robert K. Wallace from Northern Kentucky University.<\/p>\n

Ciravolo says she mentioned during a campus faculty meeting more than a year ago that she enjoys making the gallery\u2019s exhibitions interdisciplinary experiences and afterward Bercaw Edwards asked if she was interested in working together on a show to dovetail with the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely was,\u201d Ciravolo says. \u201cI\u2019m a reader. I once thought I\u2019d be an English teacher, but I became an artist, so to have the opportunity to marry literature plus art is very unusual for me and special.\u201d<\/p>\n

About two dozen framed artworks on loan from The Melville Society, which houses its collection at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, are part of the show, along with several artists’ books, Ciravolo says, noting that most of the pieces relate to \u201cMoby-Dick.\u201d<\/p>\n

This includes three full-color pieces from artist George Klauba, prints from sculptor and graphic artist Leonard Baskin, and an abstract piece, \u201cSkin\u2019s Path\/Moby Dick,\u201d from artist Aileen Callahan, a charcoal on paper that depicts the damaged skin of a whale that\u2019s been beaten with time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to always get a mix of things, a variety of style and media, into the gallery,\u201d Ciravolo says, explaining she and Bercaw Edwards visited the New Bedford Museum to pour through The Melville Society\u2019s full collection, as well as the Museum\u2019s Elizabeth Schultz Collection, and select the most powerful artworks from watercolor to printmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scholars who are coming are going to appreciate seeing these artworks,\u201d Ciravolo says. \u201cI love that it will be a generative experience for them and that the public will have the chance to see this very interesting show. We\u2019re here on Long Island Sound, near the whaling center of New England, so it\u2019s a perfect place for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AVS Gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. in the Branford House at UConn Avery Point. It will have extended hours from noon to 4 p.m. on Monday, June 16, and Tuesday, June 17, during the Melville conference for both participants and the public. The \u201cOceanic Melville\u201d exhibition is open now through Thursday, June 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About two dozen framed artworks on loan from The Melville Society are part of a concurrent exhibition at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art from now through June 19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":231598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,2226,2460,2199,2235,173,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2368],"class_list":["post-231434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-clas","category-faculty","category-new-london-county","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 18:13:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231434"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231621,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231434\/revisions\/231621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/231598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231434"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=231434"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=231434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}