COURSE UNIT TITLE

: TRAVEL LITERATURE IN AMERICA

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
AKE 4046 TRAVEL LITERATURE IN AMERICA ELECTIVE 3 0 0 5

Offered By

American Culture and Literature (English)

Level of Course Unit

First Cycle Programmes (Bachelor's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR YEŞIM BAŞARIR

Offered to

American Culture and Literature (English)

Course Objective

Examine the physical and cultural geography of America through the immigrant writings, diaries, travelogues, road novels and poetry.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Use road novels and travelogues as documentary tales in understanding American values, lifestyles, cultural display and intellectual background.
2   Use theories of "space" and "place" in deconstructing the literary texts depicting the rural and urban America.
3   Redefine America in the perspective of a traveler, an immigrant, a foreigner, a passer-by, an artist, and an intellectual.
4   Develop diverse range of readings regarding American values and history in the course of works particularly of documentary taste.
5   Interpret the literary differences between American and non-American travel writers in their work.
6   Comment on the difference of literary strategies among a variety of sub-genres.

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," 1807, William Wordsworth "Ulysses," 1833, Alfred Lord Tennyson "Uphill," 1862, Christina Rosetti
3 Transcendental Wanderings Summer on the Lakes (excerpts), 1843, Margaret Fuller
4 Idling as a Spiritual Activity Walking (excerpts), 1862, 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," 1891, Walt Whitman
6 Hobo Lifestyles and Railroads The Road (excerpts), 1907, Jack London
7 MIDTERM EXAM MIDTERM EXAM
8 Less Travelled Roads "Song of Myself" - Part 46, 1891, Walt Whitman "The Road Not Taken," 1916, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," 1922, "Desert Places," "Acquainted with the Night," 1923, Robert Frost
9 Modern Explorations "The Docks of London," The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life, 1931, "Kew Gardens," 1919, Virginia Woolf
10 Escapes that Make the New Woman "Red Faces," 1914, Gertrude Stein "Travel," 1921, "The Unexplorer," 1922, "Departure," 1923, Edna St Vincent Millay "Hearthside," 1926, Dorothy Parker
11 The Beat Hits the Road On the Road (excerpts), 1957, Jack Kerouac
12 Trans-American Journeys Travels with Charley: In Search of America (excerpts), 1962, John Steinbeck
13 Philosophy of the Road Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Maintenance (excerpts), 1974, Robert M. Pirsig
14 Hyperreality of the Road America (excerpts), 1986, Jean Baudrillard
15 Aesthetics of the Road The Art of Travel (excerpts), 2004, Alain de Botton
16 FINAL EXAM FINAL EXAM

Recomended or Required Reading

Adams, Percy G. Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel. 1962. Lexington,KY: Kentucky U P, 1983.
Botton, Alain de. The Art of Travel. New York: Penguin Books, 2002
Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World. New York: Routledge, 2002.
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.
Slusser, George E., Eric S. Rabkin (eds). Mindscapes: The Geographies of Imagined Worlds. Carbondale: Southern Illinois U P, 1989.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

1. Lectures: Lectures are the primary components of instruction among teaching strategies to lay the theoretical basis of subject and introduce the reading material relevant to the studied topic. Lectures play 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 thus increasing the factual tangibility of the information. The last hour of each weekly lecture is reserved for discussions.
3. Visual presentations and films: It includes the in-class projection of visual data such as pictures, illustrations, photographs, and maps as well as films and documentaries complementing the topic when necessarry.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE 1 MIDTERM EXAM 1
2 FIN FINAL EXAM
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE 1 * 0.50 + FIN * 0.50
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE 1 * 0.50 + RST * 0.50


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. Midterm exam covers the topics instructed in class from the beginning of semester to the day of the exam.
2. 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.

Language of Instruction

English

Course Policies and Rules

1. Students are required to attend 70% of the course schedule.
2. No textbooks or notes are allowed during the exam.
3. No dictionaries are allowed during the exam. All vocabulary used in the exam are covered previously in the class and expected to be familiar to the student.
4. Any form of cheating in the exam will result in a zero grade and also in disciplinary action.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

yesim.basarir@deu.edu.tr
Office phone: (232) 301 8513

Office Hours

By appointment

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 3 42
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 4 56
Preparation for midterm exam 1 10 10
Preparation for final exam 1 10 10
Midterm 1 1 1
Final 1 1 1
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 120

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14
LO.1555555
LO.2555555
LO.3555555
LO.4555555
LO.5555555
LO.6555555

CONTACT INFORMATION
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Cumhuriyet Bulvarı No: 144 35210 Alsancak / İZMİR
Phone: +90(232) 412 12 12 - Fax: +90 (232) 464 81 35

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