ENGL 230 Syllabus: Literature of Travel
Dr. Jim Bowman
Spring 2011
Tuesdays & Thursdays 11-12:20; Ralph Wilson 102
Office:
Basil 128, directly above Cyber Café
Email:
jbowman@sjfc.edu
Phone:
(585) 899-3791
Office Hours:
Wednesdays 11-12
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4
If these hours do not fit your schedule, please contact me to arrange another time to
meet.
“But we love the Old Travelers. We love to hear them prate and drivel and lie. We can tell them
the moment we see them. They always throw out a few feelers: they never cast themselves adrift
till they have sounded every individual and know that he has not traveled. Then they open their
throttle-valves, and how they do brag, and sneer, and swell, and soar, and blaspheme the
sacred name of Truth! Their central idea, their grand aim, is to subjugate you, keep you down,
make you feel insignificant and humble in the blaze of their cosmopolitan glory! They will not let
you know anything. They sneer at your most inoffensive suggestions; they laugh unfeelingly at
your treasured dreams of foreign lands; they brand the statements of your traveled aunts and
uncles as the stupidest absurdities; […] But still I love the Old Travelers. I love them for their witless
platitudes; for their supernatural ability to bore; for their delightful asinine vanity; for their luxuriant
fertility of imagination; for their startling, their brilliant, their overwhelming mendacity!”
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad
“We travel, then, in part just to shake up our complacencies by seeing all the moral and political
urgencies, the life-and-death dilemmas, that we seldom have to face at home. And we travel
to fill in the gaps left by tomorrow’s headlines: When you drive down the streets of Port-au-Prince,
for example, where there is almost no paving and women relieve themselves next to mountains
of trash, your notions of the Internet and a ‘one world order’ grow usefully revised. Travel is the
best way we have of rescuing the humanity of places, and saving them from abstraction and
ideology.”
Pico Iyer, “Why We Travel”
“If the tourist traverses boundaries, they are boundaries that the tourist participates in creating;
that is, an economic and social order that requires ‘margins’ and ‘centers’ will also require
representation of those structural distinctions. The tourist confirms and legitimates the social
reality of constructions such as ‘First’ and ‘Third’ Worlds, ‘development’ and
‘underdevelopment,’ or ‘metropolitan’ and ‘rural.’ Created out of increasing leisure time in
industrialized nations and driven by a need to ascertain identity and location in a world that
undermines the certainty of those categories, the tourist acts as an agent of modernity.”
Caren Kaplan, Questions of Travel
Introduction
Using the focused theme of travel and travel literature, this course aims to help you develop the
critical skills you need to read, write, and dialogue effectively and critically in collegiate,
professional, and personal contexts. ENGL 230 introduces you to different types of travel
literature, as well as ways of interpreting and responding to texts from diverse historical and
cultural contexts. We will focus especially on critical language skills necessary for you to write
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and speak clearly, intelligently, and persuasively about a range of topics. By the end of this
course, for example, you will be better at summarizing, analyzing, and interpreting travel texts
and criticism.
Course Content
This course introduces you to literatures of travel produced by various writers through time and
across lands and seas. What we encounter in terms of texts differs according to who is traveling,
whom the traveler seems to be speaking to, where they travel, when they travel, how they
travel, and with whom they travel—to name just a few of the ways that context informs travel
literature. This course invites you to consider how travel literature affects and shapes its
audiences, including you. For that matter, since we will be looking in some detail at travel essays
as a literary form, you will have the opportunity to join the long and complicated tradition of
travel writers by contributing to your own travel essay. After many weeks of surveying travel
writing and criticism about travel, you will be in the position to create your own travel text. In our
case, this will be a story about food in the Rochester area.
Your own writing of and about travel literature represents an important content type for this
course: all major essays will be produced in drafts that are critiqued, reviewed, edited, and
finally submitted for evaluation. While the theme of the course deals with literature and travel,
the critical skills of writing and rhetoric will also be important to our studies.
Course Objectives
ENGL 230 introduces students, especially those majoring in disciplines other than English, to
genres of travel literature. The course emphasizes the basic elements of textual analysis and
interpretation and the imaginative power of language. It offers as well an introduction to seeing
literature as a valuable means of understanding particular topics, times, places, and cultures.
As a core curriculum offering, we will also be working hard on the following critical skills:
 Increasing our self-awareness about the ways that travel and travel writing are both local
and global practices that create points of intersection for our own lives and others;
 Approaching texts and issues from multiple perspectives, with special concern for how
cultural assumptions inform literatures of travel;
 Developing an awareness of how our ideas and experiences intersect with and diverge from
others;
 Constructing persuasive arguments about social and cultural dimensions of travel texts and
contexts;
 Incorporating critical reading and writing skills that include analysis, thesis-driven writing,
rhetorical organization of travel texts and your own responses, provision of appropriate
evidence, and effective use of language;
 Working collaboratively on cultural analysis of writers and their texts; working collaboratively
to create travel texts (about food in the Rochester area)
Required Text and Materials
 Hulme, Peter, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
 Select readings made available through Blackboard at the beginning of each unit.
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Assignments & Assessment Scheme
Assignment
Short Response Papers
Weeks 1,2, 3 and throughout
term
Cultural Critique of a Travel Text
and Traveler
(4-5 pages)
Weeks 4-5
Critical Biography and Cultural
Critique of a Travel Writer and
their Text(s)
(5-6 pp)
Begin working on this in Week 3
and presentations will occur
over 2-3 weeks starting
immediately after Spring Break
(Week 8)
Collaborative Travel Text on
Rochester food (Digital or
Written)
3- & 7-minute videos plus a short
descriptive text, 2-3 pages OR
6-8 page travel essay. Begins in
late Feb and runs to end of term
Oral Presentations of
Collaborative Travel Texts on
Rochester food
20 minutes per group divided
equitably between presenters
Weeks 10-13
Reflective Essay on Travel and
Literature Using Multiple
Perspectives
(4 pages)
Weeks 12-13
Total
Brief Explanation
Value
Short homework assignments—1-2 pages, singlespaced, i.e., about 500-600 words—that you print
and bring to class the day they are due. These tasks
are designed to create opportunities for you to
respond to course texts and ideas while applying
the analytical skills covered in class. Short writing
tasks will often be part of the writing process for
other longer assignments. We will complete
approximately 4-5 of these throughout the term.
The successful cultural critique evaluates meanings
and messages, as well as what the text suggests
about the culture of the land and the culture of the
writer. As in any critique, you will identify strengths
and weaknesses of a text according to clear, fair,
and sufficiently demanding criteria, such as “the
credibility of the story,” “how effectively the writer
engages her audience,” or “the descriptiveness—
and persuasiveness—of the details.” A critique
needs to be about well more than personal opinions
and gut reactions.
Essays and Oral Presentations on Selected Travel
Writers, a well-known text or texts, and their Cultural
Contexts. Writers to choose from include the
following, but you can propose others: Bill Bryson,
Freya Stark, Paul Bowles, Eric Newby, Patrick Leigh
Fermor, Wilfred Thesiger, Jan Morris, Lawrence
Durrell, Colin Thubron, Dervla Murphy, Jon Krakauer,
Rolf Potts, Pico Iyer, Paul Theroux, Rory Stewart,
Daisanne McLane, Bruce Chatwin, Pier Roberts.
10%
More information coming soon…
25%
More information coming soon…
10%
A reflection on and synthesis of the thinking and
intellectual legwork of the cultural analysis, writing,
and presentations from the semester. Here, you will
reflect on course texts and themes to synthesize your
thinking about the significance of travel literature.
20%
10%
25%
100%
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Requirements for Writing Assignments
 In- and out-of-class writing will be assigned throughout the course. Students not in class when
writing is assigned are still responsible for meeting specified deadlines.
 Late work will not be accepted without penalty unless students make arrangements for an
extension before the due date. Papers will be marked down one letter grade for each day
they are late.
 Students must keep copies of all drafts and assignments until after semester’s end—
electronic copies are fine, but do make back-ups of your work.
 Drafts should show significant changes in purpose, audience, organization, or evidence.
 All drafts of major assignments must be typed and double-spaced with numbered pages
and a title. Other formatting requirements will be explained on assignment sheets for specific
tasks. As a general rule, you will need to use a standard font size (Times New Roman, 12-point
font) and one-inch margins for each document.
Special Project
Collaborative, Creative Group Projects on Food & Travel in the Rochester Area and other joint
efforts with C/J 431, taught by Dr. Sodano. To be explained on February 22 in Basil 135 with Dr.
Sodano’s class and my class together.
Blackboard and Instructional Technology
Assignments, class notes, homework tasks, and other material will be posted regularly on
Blackboard. All drafts of major assignments will be submitted on Blackboard rather than as hard
copies, although you may be asked to print drafts of major assignments for purposes of peer
review. In the case of absence, please first refer to Blackboard for homework assignments. I also
recommend contacting a peer from class to clarify any items you have questions or concerns
about; if you still need assistance contact me via email or office hours for further clarification.
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
St. John Fisher College has a firm policy concerning academic dishonesty that includes, but is
not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, or any other action that misrepresents academic work as
being one’s own. Students are expected to demonstrate academic honesty in all coursework,
whether completed in class or not, individually, or as part of a group project. Violations of
academic honesty include, but are not limited to, cheating and plagiarism. Submitting an item
of academic work that has previously been submitted without fair citation of the original work or
authorization by the faculty member supervising the work is prohibited. All students are expected
to be familiar with the details of the Policy on Academic Honesty, which are found in the online
Student Handbook at http://www.sjfc.edu/global/pdf/StudentHandbook.pdf.
Extra Help with Writing
I strongly encourage all students to take advantage of the SJFC Writing Center. When you visit,
consultants—other students with skill in writing and training on how to help you improve—assist
you with writing tasks from all disciplines and during all stages of the process, such as
brainstorming, focusing and developing, revising, or editing. Individualized service and extensive
writer participation during tutorials enable students to become more skillful writers.Resources at
the Writing Center include a lending library of style manuals, handbooks, dictionaries, and
workbooks. Computers and printers are also available for client use during regular operating
hours. Hours vary by semester. Writing center services are free of charge to all Fisher students. To
make an appointment, visit https://tutortrac.sjfc.edu and follow the instructions. “Walk-ins” are
welcome but subject to consultant availability. The Writing Center is located on the top floor of
the Academic Gateway. Contact the Writing Center at 585-385-8151 for more information
about this service.
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Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Classes will include writing tasks, in-class discussions, and peer group
work. Therefore, students should not be late and should not miss classes. Any class work missed
as a result of tardiness or absence is the student’s responsibility to make up. Students who miss
more than 4 classes may fail the course, according to College policy. Late papers will not be
accepted without a valid excuse. Illness, family emergencies, religious holidays, and athletics
(with a note specifying which event the student must participate in on a certain date) constitute
valid excuses. All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for
those students who show affiliation with that particular religion.
Policy on Disabilities
In compliance with St. John Fisher College policy and applicable laws, appropriate academic
accommodations are available to you if you are a student with a disability. All requests for
accommodations must be supported by appropriate documentation/diagnosis and
determined reasonable by SJFC. Students with documented disabilities (physical, learning,
psychological) and who may need academic accommodations are advised to make an
appointment with the Coordinator of Disability Services in the Office of Academic Affairs, K202.
Late notification will delay requested accommodations.
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Weekly Schedule—subject to revision
Week 1, Jan 13—Introduction to course and topics; CCTW Intro and Chapter 1, Pico Iyer’s “Why
We Travel.” Response paper 1.
Week 2, Jan 18 & 20—Early travel writing; early travelers. Sir John Mandeville, Christopher
Columbus. Response paper 2.
Week 3, Jan 25 & 27 (Dr. Bowman absent)—Film, screened in Basil 135 with Dr. Todd Sodano’s
film production class; special theme introduced—“Food and Travel.” Select a writer to focus on
with your partners. Response paper 3 on the film.
Week 4, Feb 1 & 3—The Grand Tour and its legacies. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Tobias
Smollett and James Boswell’s travels; CCTW essay by Buzard. Response paper 4.
Week 5, Feb 8 & 10—Early American travelers. Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Essay 1 Due.
Week 6, Feb 15 & 17—20th-century survey of modern travel writing.
Week 7, Feb 22 & 24—Class meets in Basil 135. Dr. Sodano and Dr. Bowman introduce the
collaborative food and travel project. Writing about food in the context of travel: producing
landscapes, making food part of the scene, constructing difference. Select essays on food,
travel, and culture. Essay 2 Due.
Week 8, Mar 1 & 3—Spring Break—go travel somewhere, even if you have to use your own hoofs!
Week 9, Mar 8 & 10—20th-century survey continued: Women and travel. Critical biography
presentations begin. Outside work on Rochester food travel texts begins.
Week 10, Mar 15 & 17—From the outside looking in: America in the eyes of foreign travelers
(Tocqueville, others). Critical biography presentations continue. Critical Biography essays due.
Week 11, Mar 22 & 24—Critical biography presentations end. Special projects on Rochester food
and travel: workshops.
Week 12, Mar 29 & 31— Special projects on Rochester food and travel: conferences with Dr.
Bowman
Week 13, April 5 & 7—Presentations of final projects
Week 14, April 12 & 14— Presentations of final projects
Week 15, April 19 (off April 21)—Special video projects screened in 135; Introduce final essay
Week 16, April 26—Final Reflective Essays Due
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