Course Description
This semester, we will read writing about travel and place from Columbus’s Diario through the present. Travel writing has some special features that will shape both the content and the work for this subject: reflecting the point of view, narrative choices, and style of individuals, it also responds to the pressures of a real world only marginally under their control. Whether the traveler is a curious tourist, the leader of a national expedition, or a starving, half-naked survivor, the encounter with place shapes what travel writing can be. Accordingly, we will pay attention not only to narrative texts but to maps, objects, archives, and facts of various kinds.
Our materials are organized around three regions: North America, Africa and the Atlantic world, the Arctic and Antarctic. The historical scope of these readings will allow us to know something not only about the experiences and writing strategies of individual travelers, but about the progressive integration of these regions into global economic, political, and knowledge systems. Whether we are looking at the production of an Inuit film for global audiences, or the mapping of a route across the North American continent by water, these materials do more than simply record or narrate experiences and territories: they also participate in shaping the world and what it means to us.
Authors will include Olaudah Equiano, Caryl Philips, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Joseph Conrad, Jamaica Kincaid, William Least Heat Moon, Louise Erdrich, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.
Expeditions will include those of Lewis and Clark (North America), Henry Morton Stanley (Africa), Ernest Shackleton and Robert F. Scott (Antarctica).
Course Goals
Contemporary Authors
Caryl Phillips, Louise Erdrich, William Least Heat-Moon.
Regions
North America, Africa and the Atlantic World, the Arctic and Antarctic.
Expeditions
Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott, Lewis and Clark, David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
Course Requirements
Informal Writing
This consists of two sections. The first section contains 500-700 words and identifies and discusses an object that 1/ relates to the events or places described in one of our texts; 2/ changes our understanding by telling us something the text doesn’t. The second section is a response either to Worsley reading for Ses #23 or to Erdrich’s Books and Islands for Ses #25.
Group Work/Presentations
Each group will be in charge of leading 2 days of discussion, which means you will: prepare a presentation on the readings and design activities and discussion questions that you think appropriate to the material and to your topic. Part of your presentation should be a hand-out with a bibliography of sources.
Course Grades
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Essays 1, 2, 3 (15% each) | 45% |
| Revision | 15% |
| Peer response | 3% |
| Quiz | 2% |
| Wiki posts (5% each) | 10% |
| Group work and presentations (10% each) | 20% |
| Participation and attendance | 5% |
MIT Literature Statement on Plagiarism
Plagiarism—use of another’s intellectual work without acknowledgement—is a serious offense. It is the policy of the Literature Faculty that students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else’s work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student’s own work. For further guidance on the proper forms of attribution, consult the style guides available at the Writing and Communication Center and the MIT Web site on Plagiarism.
Calendar
| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1. Introduction | ||
| 1 |
Time, Space, Event: J. Stern, “Rough Guide to My Apartment” |
|
| 2 |
Tourists, Travellers, Explorers: Jamaica Kincaid (from A Small Place) |
|
| Part II. Crossing North America | ||
| 3 | W. Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways | |
| 4 | W. Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways (cont.) | |
| 5 | W. Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways (cont.) | |
| 6 | A. N. Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios | Essay 1 draft due one day later |
| 7 | A. N. Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios (cont.) | |
| 8 | M. Lewis and W. Clark, Journals |
Essay 1 due Peer responses due |
| 9 | M. Lewis and W. Clark, Journals (cont.) | |
| 10 | M. Lewis and W. Clark, Journals (cont.) | |
| Part III. Africa and The Atlantic World | ||
| 11 | O. Equiano, Interesting Narrative | |
| 12 | O. Equiano, Interesting Narrative (cont.) | |
| 13 | O. Equiano and H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone | |
| 14 | O. Equiano and H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (cont.) | |
| 15 | O. Equiano and H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (cont.) | |
| 16 | C. Phillips, The Atlantic Sound, “Atlantic Crossing,” “Leaving Home” | Essay 2 due |
| 17 | Phillips, “Homeward Bound,” “Home,” “Exodus” | Peer responses due (optional) |
| 18 | Workshop: revising your essays | |
| Part IV. Polar regions | ||
| 19 | Atanarjuat, Quiz | 1st Informal writing section due on or before this date |
| 20 | Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Worst Journey, Introduction | Revision due 1 day later |
| 21 | Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Worst Journey (cont.) | |
| 22 | Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Worst Journey (cont.) | |
| 23 | F. Worsley, Endurance | Option 1 for 2nd informal writing section due |
| 24 |
F. Worsley, Endurance (cont.) T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland |
Optional revision due Option 2 for 2nd informal writing section due |
| Part V. Remaining in place | ||
| 25 | L. Erdrich, Books and Islands | Option 3 for 2nd informal writing section due |
| 26 | L. Erdrich, Books and Islands (cont.) | Essay 3 due 1 day later |
