120160 AR Travel Writing and the Experience of Cultural Difference (2007W)

The detailed observations of travelers through remote and inaccessible parts of the world have always attracted a large readership. But in what ways did the concerns of travelers from different periods and social backgrounds change? This course compares the style and subject matter of some extremely popular travel accounts published between the early eighteenth century and the present. Reading these narratives in the light of theories about the representation of the cultural other, we will seek to identify the messages they communicated and continue to communicate to their readers. In particular, we will ask to what extent they either created an emotionally uninvolved armchair reader, fired an enthusiastic desire (especially) in their young readers to see the world for themselves, or utilized their comparative vantage point to criticize the habits of their own cultural background.

Assessment: students will give a short oral presentation and sit a written examination in the last week of the semester.