On the Road: Mobility in American Culture

elective courses

Classroom

The concept of America has always been connected with travel, at least ever since the first European settlers came to the new continent. When one thinks “America,” more often than not one means “mobility,” both in literal and metaphorical terms. Being on the move is a quintessential part of being an American. During the course we’ll explore literary and cinematographic representations of travel, including, but not limited to, portrayals that focus on the myth of the road (Thelma and Louise, dir. Ridley Scott), the myth of the (Wild) West (How the West Was Won, dir. John Ford et al.) and the myth of the American wilderness (Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn; Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums). We’ll have a look at what happens when Americans leave the vast American continent to venture into other parts of the world (Bharati Mukherjee The Holder of the World; Paul Theroux The Mosquito Coast).

The concept of America has always been connected with travel, at least ever since the first European settlers came to the new continent. When one thinks “America,” more often than not one means “mobility,” both in literal and metaphorical terms. Being on the move is a quintessential part of being an American. During the course we’ll explore literary and cinematographic representations of travel, including, but not limited to, portrayals that focus on the myth of the road (Thelma and Louise, dir. Ridley Scott), the myth of the (Wild) West (How the West Was Won, dir. John Ford et al.) and the myth of the American wilderness (Into the Wild, dir. Sean Penn; Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums). We’ll have a look at what happens when Americans leave the vast American continent to venture into other parts of the world (Bharati Mukherjee The Holder of the World; Paul Theroux The Mosquito Coast). In a nutshell, we’ll accompany the characters on a number of major and minor trips in space and time, inside and outside of the US.

Selected issues to be covered in class:

- the road narrative genre

- traveling to the New World

- the Wild West

- travel and gender

- immigration as travel

- travel outside the US

Holland, Patrick and Graham Huggan. Tourists with Typewriters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Travel Writing. The University of Michigan Press, 1998.

Selected literature:

Hulme, Peter and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Kaplan, Caren. Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement. Duke University Press, 1996.

Mills, Sara. Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women’s Travel Writing and Colonialism. Routledge, 1991.

Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Routledge, 1992.

Smith, Sidonie. Moving Lives: Twentieth-Century Women’s Travel Writing. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Upon completion of the course, a student:

Knowledge:

- knows the terminology employed for the analysis of road narratives;

- is familiar with major topics and trends of road narratives, including their transformations over time.

Skills:

- can take part in discussions of literary texts/films and identify crucial elements of the structure of a road narrative;

- is able to offer a detailed analysis of a literary text/film in speech and writing with the use of terminology proper for the studied body of texts.

Competences:

- is aware of the diversity of literary and cinematographic representations of the US;

- is sensitive to the role of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class and other elements of identity for the functioning of individuals and groups within a larger society.

Assessment criteria:

- attendance and active participation in the classes – 20%

- four short response papers – 40% (10% each)

- final research paper – 40%

Grading scale:

0-59% - 2

60-69% - 3.0

70-74% - 3.5

75-84% - 4.0

85-89% - 4.5

90-100% - 5