Course Description

Course Number: K10.0043 

Meeting days & times: TR 2:00-3:15 

Instructor: Steve Hutkins

Course Description: The American novelist John Gardner once said there were only two plots to all of the stories ever told: a stranger comes to town, and someone goes on a journey. There may be other plots, but the encounter between those who are settled and those who are on the move is one of the most intriguing and compelling of literary themes. This course focuses on novels and short stories and asks what happens when travelers and tourists come into contact with the locals and native-born. It examines the way travelers preconceive and apprehend foreign places, the problematic search for the "authentic" and "essential," and the view of tourism as a form of neo-colonialism, involving issues of power and possession, race and class, exoticism and Otherness. Supplemental readings explore the history, sociology, politics, and economics of travel and tourism.

Readings: 

James, Henry. Daisy Miller (1878). Penguin

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness (1902).Modern Library

Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice (1912). Harper Collins

Hemingway, Ernest.  The Sun Also Rises (1926).  Simon & Schuster

Bowles, Paul.  The Sheltering Sky (1949). Harper Collins

Kerouac, Jack. On the Road (1957). Penguin

Hazzard, Shirley. Evening of the Holiday (1966). VHPS

McEwan, Ian. The Comfort of Strangers (1981). Random House

Theroux, Paul. Mosquito Coast (1982). Mariner

Guo, Xiaolu. A Concise Chinese English Dictionary (2007). Anchor