AN32004BA 09 BRITISH TRAVEL WRITING
Ágnes Balajthy
Mon. 18.00 –19.40; Room 106
The course is intended as an introduction into travel writings studies. Its objectives are
twofold. First, it aims to provide an historical overview of British travel writing, revealing the
metamorphoses of the genre through the analyses of paradigmatic texts by British travellers.
Second, it will address the cultural history of travel, exploring its social and political role, its
material circumstances, its contribution to the formation of the British identity, and its
culturally coded versions from the Grand Tour through the romantic travel to self-reflexive
post-tourism. Naturally, the two topics belong to each other: discussions about the practice of
travelling in a given era will go along with the analysis of the textual representations of
travelling from the same period. The close reading of the chosen excerpts will focus on their
rhetoric complexity: special attention will be paid to the staging of the experience of
otherness, gender codes, intertextuality, and modes of self-representation. We will also touch
upon the cultural significance of the places visited by travel writers (e.g. Naipul’s India or Sir
John Mandevilles’s Holy Land), exploring the set of topoi that prefigure their literary
representations.
Requirements
Presence at classes: a maximum of three absences are allowed. In the case of a longer
absence (either due to illness, or official leave), the tutor and the student will come to an
agreement of how to solve the problem.
Assigned reading: The seminar format and the reading requirements suppose that the assigned
texts are read for the classes. Tests (plot tests) on the assigned readings can be expected
at each seminar. If your overall achievement in these tests is less than 60%, your
seminar is a failure (the grade is a one). You will be granted, though, one chance to
make up for the failure of these minor tests as agreed with your course tutor.
Participation in classroom discussion: you are expected to take an active part in classroom
discussions. This activity contributes to the seminar grade by 15% of the overall
achievement.
Endterm test: an objective test on the works discussed during the term. The test must be
written at the time scheduled in the syllabus. Failing to do so will count as course
failure, and only one re-sit test will be scheduled to make up for the failure. The test
will have a pass limit: failing the test will count as course failure, and only one re-sit
test will be scheduled to make up for the failure. For percentage, see the grading
policy below.
GRADING POLICY
Course components
plot tests
10% 12
points
classroom discussion 30% 36
points
endterm test
60% 72
total
100%
Percentage
87–100
75–86
63–74
51–62
0–50
Grade
5
4
3
2
1
1
Texts:
Assigned readings: Twelve copies of Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey are available in the
library, the other texts will be deposited in a course packet in the Institute Library (rm. 101).
Week Date Topic
1
15/02 Introduction: the origins of travel writing
2
22/02 Medieval pilgrimages
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Chapter XXI
3
29/02 Travel writing in the age of geographical discoveries
William Dampier: A New Voyage Round the World. [excerpt] In: Travel
Writing 1700–1830: An Anthology, Bohls, Elizabeth A. and Ian Duncan.
Oxford: OUP, 2005. 68 – 77, 426-429.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: ‘Embassy Letters’. [excerpt] In: Travel
Writing 1700–1830: An Anthology, 68 – 77.
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
07/03 The Grand Tour and ‘the sentimental journey’
Joseph Addison: Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, in: Travel Writing
1700–1830: An Anthology, 5-10.
14/03 The romantic journey and the emergence of tourism
Mary Shelley: Rambles in Germany and Italy, Volume 1., Letter III, VII,
VIII. (31 – 41, 73-94.)
21/03 The ‘golden age of travel’ – travel writing and high modernism
Robert Byron: Road to Oxiana, 277-298, 332-333
Paul Fussell: Abroad, 73-79
D. H. Lawrence: Sea and Sardinia, 55-69
28/03 Consultation week, no class
04/04 (Post)colonial travelling – V. S. Naipaul’s India
V. S. Naipul, An Area of Darkness, 1-60, 186 – 196
11/04 Anti-travel writing
Claude Levi-Strauss: Tristes Tropique, 17-18, 323-341, Jamaica
Kincaid: A Small Place, 1-19.
18/04 England from inside and outside – Jonathan Raban’s Coasting
Coasting, 9-28, 52-102
25/04 Ethnography and the postmodern travel narrative – Bruce Chatwin’s
The Songlines
The Songlines, 1-73, 156 – 196
02/05 End-term test
Evaluation in my office hours by appointment from 9 May on.
2