Course title: « Meeting with the Other. Introduction to travel literature»

general courses

Remote learning

Meeting with the Other. Introduction to travel literature

The seminar is devoted to the analysis of various types of testimonies from expeditions organized by French travelers in the 16th and 17th centuries. The text corpus covers travels to the Americas as well as to the Levant. Differences in the description of lands and phenomena that were known thanks to ancient texts (Herodotus, Pliny) and were updated by modern authors will be shown. Against this background, the characteristic features of reports from the New World, spaces and objects that have never been described before will be shown. A significant part of the course will be devoted to the issues of Otherness, the characteristics of this concept as well as examples of techniques for presenting different communities and their customs.

Meeting with the Other. Introduction to travel literature

The seminar is devoted to the analysis of various types of testimonies from expeditions organized by French travelers in the 16th and 17th centuries. The text corpus covers travels to the Americas as well as to the Levant. Differences in the description of lands and phenomena that were known thanks to ancient texts (Herodotus, Pliny) and were updated by modern authors will be shown. Against this background, the characteristic features of reports from the New World, spaces and objects that have never been described before will be shown. A significant part of the course will be devoted to the issues of Otherness, the characteristics of this concept as well as examples of techniques for presenting different communities and their customs.

Selected Issues:

-Jean Parmentier and an exotic trip to Sumatra

-Pierre Belon and Nicolas de Nicolay - two views on the Empire of Suleiman the Magnificent

-Histoire d'un voyage en la terre du Brésil by Jean de Léry - the first French ethnographic text

-Andre Thevet - royal cosmographer

-Marc Lescarbot et son Histoire de la Nouvelle-France

-Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud, Le crépuscule du grand voyage: les récits des pèlerins à Jérusalem (1458-1612), Champion, 1999.

- Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud, Écrire le voyage au XVIe siècle en France, 2000

-Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud, Le crépuscule du grand voyage: les récits des pèlerins à Jérusalem (1458-1612), Champion, 1999.

-Friedrich Wolfzettel : Le Discours du voyageur. Le récit de voyage en France, du Moyen Age au 18e siècle, (Coll. «Perspectives littéraires ») 1996

-Paul Zumthor, La mesure du monde: représentation de l'espace au Moyen Age, Ed. du Seuil, 1993.

-Itinéraires littéraires du voyage. Sous la direction de FRANÇOIS MOUREAU. Avec la collaboration de MARIE-CHRISTINE GOMEZ-GÉRAUD et de PHILIPPE ANTOINE. Travaux de Littérature, volume XXV.Genève, Droz, 2013. Un vol. de 380 p.

-Frank Lestringant, L'Atelier du cosmographe, ou l'image du monde à la Renaissance, Albin Michel, 1991.

-Frank Lestringant, Le Huguenot et le sauvage: L'Amérique et la controverse coloniale en France, au temps des guerres de religion (1555-1589), 1990.

- Michel Jeanneret, « Lery et Thevet: comment parler d'un monde nouveau ?"

https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:23122

After successfully completing the course, the student:

- understands the specificity of the phenomenon which were the first contacts of travelers with indigenous people;

-can name the most important expeditions to the Americas, to the Levant and to the East Indies;

- knows the most important European and French travelers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the destinations, their nature and meaning;

- knows how to characterize the historical and social context of expeditions;

- knows the basic concepts and the corresponding terms used to interpret documents from expeditions;

-knows the terminology used to describe the issue of Otherness;

-can interpret a fragment of the original text of the travel report by himself;

- has knowledge of the culture of France and French-speaking countries;

- knows how to use various sources and methods, including modern information technologies, to search, analyze, evaluate, select and use information necessary to participate in classes;

- knows how to use the basic theoretical approaches, research paradigms and concepts relevant to linguistics and literary studies;

-know the rules of respect for copyrights and applies to them in their own works;

- is aware of the responsibility for preserving the cultural heritage of the studied region, country and Europe.

-All students must have the address ... @ student.uw.edu.pl

- attendance and active participation in classes (2 unexcused absences are allowed per semester)

-preparing a short speech on the basis of an article or chapter of a monograph

-preparing a presentation (PP) of a selected issue in the scope of the discussed topic based on one's own reading and research

The form and criteria for passing the subject may change depending on the current situation of an epidemic threat. Equivalent credit conditions will be determined in accordance with the guidelines in force at the University of Warsaw, in consultation with class participants.