Post by Monday, Sept. 8.

1. Read Henry James's Daisy Miller.

2. Post a blog entry about the story, preferably as it relates to the theme of travel. Here are some blog ideas: (1) Just write about your thoughts on the story.  (2) Read a commentary or background essay about the story and discuss it in your blog; if it's an online article, make a link to it.  See the About the Readings page for a list of articles. (3) Do a little research and provide some helpful information, e.g., something about the places mentioned in the story, something about Henry James, etc. (again, make a link to your source).  (4) Relate the link to something in the news—e.g., check the travel news page on the website for starters.  (5) If you have a personal experience that's relevant (e.g., you've visited a place mentioned in the story), write about that.

3. Include an image with your blog post.  Help finding images on the net can be found here, and the instructions for posting images can be found by clicking on the Help link.

4. Post a comment on someone else's blog.

Post by Monday, Sept. 22.

1. For Tuesday, read the first two-thirds or so of The Sheltering Sky. Finish the book for Thursday. It's a long novel and we're only spending a week on it, so get started on the reading as soon as possible. 

2. Post a blog entry about the story as it relates to the theme of travel.  Post by Monday.

3. Include an image with your blog post.  

4. Post a comment on someone else's blog.  (You can make this the assignment for Thursday.)

Post by Thursday, Oct. 9, class time.  

Write 1500 words (not more—use the word count to check yourself). If you like, include a picture. (Please make sure there’s an extra space between paragraphs; you may need to go back and edit to insert the breaks.)

The goal of this exercise is to relate a social science discussion of travel and tourism to one or more of the novels we’ve read so far—Daisy Miller, The Sun Also Rises, The Sheltering Sky, and On the Road. The articles include the following:

1. Entry on “authenticity” in the Encyclopedia of Tourism

2. Erik Cohen, “A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences”

3. Dean MacCannell, “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings”

4. Donald Redfoot, “Touristic Authenticity, Touristic Angst, and Modern Reality”

These articles develop several themes—the motivations for travel, the varieties of tourist and travel experience, the traveler-tourist’s search for authenticity, the traveler’s sense of alienation from his “center,” the idea of travel as a form of pilgrimage, etc. Focus on one such theme, work up a thesis about it, write about one or more of the novels, and incorporate a few ideas and quotations from the article(s). Narrow the scope of the paper to a single theme, question, or main point. Use specific examples from the novels: characters, episodes, images, passages.

Assume your reader has read the articles and novels, so don’t spend too much time summarizing, explaining, and quoting: use most of your space applying something in the article(s) to a reading of the novels. Keep quotations short and don’t over do them: this is a relatively short paper, and most of the words should be yours.  For quotations, just put the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence (before the period), “like this” (70). There’s more on citation formats on the website, here.

Post by Monday, Oct. 27.

1. For Tuesday's class, read to the end (or close to it) of Mosquito Coast. For Thursday, finish the book.

2. Post a blog entry about a travel theme in the novel.  You might take a look at one of the articles on the About the Reading page.  Think about comparisons to Heart of Darkness, the relationship of travel and colonialism, the encounter between travelers and "savages," the theme of "doubling" (e.g., the way the missionary family doubles Charlie's family), etc.  Consider Cohen's categories and the idea of alienation from the center as a motive for Allie's travels: does the Geronimo represent a new center, i.e., a place where the alternative values of another culture offer him a new home?

3. As usual, include an image with your blog post.  

4. Post a comment on someone else's blog for the following class on Thursday.

Post by Monday, Nov. 11.

1. For Tuesday's class, read The Comfort of Strangers in its entirety.

2. Post a blog entry about a travel theme in the novel. You might take a look at one of the articles on the About the Reading page. (BTW, if any of the links don't work for you, go to NYUHome > Research tab > under "Databases: Title index" select "L" and go to the "Literature Resource Center," and type in Comfort of Strangers.)  Some suggested topics: (1) Some critics read the story against a background in the psychoanalytic literature on sado-masochism—you could follow that lead.  (2) The novel has several connections to Death in Venice you might explore.  (3) How is Venice represented in the novel and how does it contribute to developing the book's themes?  (4) After you finish the book, go back to the beginning and re-read a few chapters: what do you notice now that you may have missed before?  (5) Focus on a key passage or two that relate directly to travel and tourism, and connect them to the rest of the novel.  (6) Consider the significance of the epigraph from Adrienne Rich; this article may be helpful. (7) Check out the interview with McEwan in the pdf below.

3. As usual, include an image with your blog post, and post a comment on someone else's blog.

Post by Monday, Dec. 1.

For Tuesday's class, read A Concise Chinese English Dictionary in its entirety.  There's not a lot written about the book, but check out the reviews and other links on the About the Readings page.  For Monday before class, post a blog entry about a travel theme in the novel.  As usual, include an image with your blog post, and post a comment on someone else's blog.