English 4720
Studies in Travel Writing

 

Reading and Assignment Schedule

R 8/19 Introduction to the Course

T 8/24     Charles Dickens, "A Flight" (handout); Hank Stuever, "Just One Word: Plastic" (Washington Post 16 June 2002; available via LexisNexis); "Introduction" (CC 1-13) and "Stirrings and Searchings" (CC 17-36)

R 8/26     Frances Trollope: Domestic Manners of the Americans (7-58)

T 8/31     Trollope: Domestic Manners (59-144)

R 9/2       Trollope: Domestic Manners (163-193; 205-222; 258-274)

T 9/7      Trollope: Domestic Manners (284-318); Dickens, from American Notes (handout); Philip Henry Gosse, from Letters from Alabama (handout) R

R 9/9     Gustave Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt (9-59); Said, from Orientalism (handout)

T 9/14    Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt (60-137) R

R 9/16     Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt (138-177); "The Middle East/Arabia" (CC 105-121)

T 9/21     Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt (178-222); excerpts from Harriet Martineau, Eastern Life Past and Present and Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (handouts)

R 9/23     "The Grand Tour and After" (CC 37-52); Guest Presenter, Dr. James Buzard, MIT.

T 9/28     Midterm Exam

R 9/30     V. S. Naipaul, An Area of Darkness (1-40); "India/Calcutta" (CC 191-206)

T 10/5     Naipaul, Area of Darkness (41-127)

R 10/7     Naipaul, Area of Darkness (128-196); Bhabha, "Unpacking My Library . . . Again" (e-reserve)

T 10/12   Naipaul, Area of Darkness (199-290)

R 10/14     Stuart Hall, "Ethnicity:  Identity and Difference" (e-reserve)

T 10/19     Krakauer, Into Thin Air (7-203)

R 10/21     Film: Michael Pailin’s Around the World in 80 Days. Short Paper Due

T 10/26     Krakauer, Into Thin Air (207-333)

R 10/28     John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America (3-46)

T 11/2     Steinbeck, Travels with Charley (47-116); Culler, "The Semiotics of Tourism" (e-reserve)

R 11/4     Steinbeck, Travels with Charley (117-165)

T 11/9     Steinbeck, Travels with Charley (166-210)

R 11/11     Christopher Hitchens, "The Ballad of Route 66" (e-reserve); "The West/California" (CC 207-222)

T 11/16     Jenny Diski, Stranger on a Train (1-70)

R 11/18     Diski, Stranger on a Train (71-96); "Travel Writing and Gender" (CC 225-241) R

11/22-11/26 Thanksgiving Break

T 11/30     Diski, Stranger on a Train (97-213)

R 12/2     Diski, Stranger on a Train (214-280) Research Paper Due

T 12/7     Course Conclusion, Evaluations, and Exam Review

F 12/10 Final Exam (2-4:30)

 

To travel is to discover that everybody is wrong.

–Aldous Huxley