COURSE UNIT TITLE

: AMERICAN TRAVEL LITERATURE

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 6040 AMERICAN TRAVEL LITERATURE ELECTIVE 3 0 0 8

Offered By

American Culture and Literature

Level of Course Unit

Third Cycle Programmes (Doctorate Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR YEŞIM BAŞARIR

Offered to

American Culture and Literature

Course Objective

Perform critical readings of literary work written on American natural and cultural geography by American and non-American authors.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Define the fundamental aspects of American geography, society, culture and lifestyles in the textual medium of road novels, poems, immigrant writings, journals, and travelogues.
2   Make the discourse analysis of travel narratives written in the perspective of a traveler, an immigrant, a visitor, a passer-by, an artist, or an intellectual.
3   Develop diverse range of readings regarding American values and history in the course of works written in documentary style.
4   Distinguish the ideological emphasis and strategic variety changing according to each literary genre and narrator's point of view.
5   Use theories of space and place in deconstructing the literary texts depicting the rural and urban America

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Introduction Perceptions of Wandering and Voyaging in Literature
2 English Romantics and Victorians "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (William Wordsworth) "Ulysses" (Alfred Lord Tennyson) "Uphill" (Christina Rosetti)
3 Transcendental Wanderings Summer on the Lakes (Margaret Fuller)
4 Idling as a Spiritual Activity Walking (Henry David Thoreau)
5 Road Mysticism "Song of the Open Road" "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life" "From Paumanok Starting I Fly Like a Bird" (Walt Whitman)
6 Hobo Lifestyles and Railroads The Road (Jack London)
7 Less Traveled Roads "Song of Myself" Part 46 (Walt Whitman) "The Road Not Taken" "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" "Desert Places" "Acquainted with the Night" (Robert Frost)
8 Modern Explorations "The Docks of London" "Kew Gardens" (Virginia Woolf)
9 Escapes That Make the New Woman "Susie Asado" "Red Faces" (Gertrude Stein) "Travel" "Departure" "The Unexplorer" "The Snow Storm" (Edna St. Vincent Millay "Hearthside" (Dorothy Parker)
10 The Beat Hits the Road On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
11 Trans-American Journeys Travels with Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck)
12 Philosophy of the Road Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
13 Aesthetics of the Road America (Jean Baudrillard) The Art of Travel (Alain de Botton)
14 Contemporary American Travel Poets Miscellaneous

Recomended or Required Reading

Textbook(s)
Adams, Percy G. Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel. 1962. Lexington,KY: Kentucky UP, 1983.
Campbell, Neil, Alasdair Kean. American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Franklin, Wayne, Michael Steiner (eds). Mapping American Culture. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1992
Simonson, Harold P. Beyond the Frontier. Fort Worth: Texas Christian U P, 1989.

Supplementary Book(s)
Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Clark, Steve, ed. Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit. New York: Zed Books, 1999.
Lisle, Debbie. The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2006.

References
Botton, Alain de. The Art of Travel. New York: Penguin Books, 2002
Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden. New York: Oxford U P, 1999.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1995.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

1. Courses: Of the teaching strategies, courses are the primary components of instruction to lay the theoretical basis of subject and introduce the reading material relevant to the topic. Courses display a central role in getting to know the terms and concepts defining the topic.
2. In-class discussions: In-class discussions aim at questioning the applicability of course material to diverse situations and increasing the factual tangibility of the information. The last hour of each weekly lecture is reserved for discussions.
3. Visual presentations: It includes the in-class projection of visual data such as pictures, illustrations, photographs, and maps as well as videos and documentaries complementing the topic.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE MTE * 0.40 + FCG* 0.60
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE * 0.40 + RST* 0.60


*** Resit Exam is Not Administered in Institutions Where Resit is not Applicable.

Further Notes About Assessment Methods

Exams are to inquire the correct use of terms and concepts profiling the course material and question the major thinking patterns acquired in the course.

Assessment Criteria

1. Exam questions aim at measuring student's performance on discussing the social, cultural and literary issues, and his/her proficiency in developing a critical viewpoint.
2. Depending on analytical approach, questions may require multiple responses.
3. Questions examine the student's ability of combining theory with literary and intellectual history.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

1. Students are required to attend 70% of the course schedule.
2. Exam questions are based on open-book and open-note principle to improve students' thinking abilities and encourage them for higher cognitive responses.
3. Any form of cheating in the exam will result in a zero grade and also in disciplinary action.
4. Midterm exam covers the topics instructed in class from the beginning of semester to the day of the exam.
5. Final exam covers the topics instructed in class after the midterm exam to the end of the semester, with some vital references to the content of the midterm exam.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

yesim.basarir@deu.edu.tr
phone: 301 8513

Office Hours

Monday 14:00-15:00
Friday 14:00-15:00

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 3 42
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 6 84
Preparation for midterm exam 1 15 15
Preparation for final exam 1 15 15
Reading 14 3 42
Midterm 1 3 3
Final 1 3 3
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 204

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14PO.15PO.16PO.17
LO.15554554445
LO.25554554445
LO.35554554445
LO.45554554445
LO.55554554445