106-048 Travel Writing: Zones of the Imagination

Usually 25 points of first-year English, see Prerequisites, or first-year European studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject explores the literature of travel, fictive and factual, with an emphasis on the 18th and 19th centuries. Students will encounter a variety of historical and imaginative texts which draw attention to the centrality of modes of travel to our recent colonial and global history. Students who complete this subject successfully should be familiar with a number of key works of travel writing; able to identify characteristic elements in these; able to understand analogies between literal and mental travel; and able to compare and contrast individual works.

• be able to read attentively a variety of works;

• be able to write both critically and lucidly;

• be able to discuss coherently and patiently;

• be able to both think and change their minds.

An essay of 4000 words 100% (due at the end of the semester).

• C Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle. Penguin.
• R Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries. Penguin.
• H Melville, Moby Dick. Penguin.
• D Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. Penguin.
• Homer, R Fagles (trans), The Odyssey. Penguin.
• S Johnson & J Boswell, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Journal of a Tour in the Hebrides. Penguin.