ENG 109S Writing Travel: The Journey is Everything*
At the start of the 21^st century, travelers criss-cross the globe in ever-increasing numbers. But what do we make of our many journeys, and what do they make of us? What of the much-touted distinction between travelers and tourists? In what ways does our cultural baggage affect our perceptions, and how do our encounters on “foreign” ground make our home territory appear newly strange?
In this course we will explore the diverse and popular genre of travel literature, which has been both celebrated for upholding freedom and fostering cultural self-perception, and criticized for pandering to a privileged readership and espousing retrograde nostalgic values. We will weigh these and other questions as we read travel writers of the past and present (possibilities: Lafcadio Hearne; Paul Theroux; Bruce Chatwin; V.S Naipaul; Jan Morris; Jamaica Kincaid) and simultaneously embark on a journey of recollection to discover the meaning of the places we’ve been, the sights we’ve seen, through writing well-crafted essays. Whether you have climbed the Andes, sipped tea in a Kyoto garden, tracked lemurs in Madagascar, lost your way in the kasbah or, like Thoreau, simply “traveled a good deal in Concord,” this course offers a route to new perspectives.
Weekly short responses to the readings (1-2 pp); frequent 3-4 pp. writing forays in response to prompts; two longer essays, revised for a final portfolio. |
