Travel Narratives
The Canterbury Tales
This course explores the experience of travel and the many questions it raises about social identity and cultural difference, the traveler's search for adventure and authenticity, the relationship between tourism and colonialism, and the pervasive use of metaphors of travel in the discourse of postmodernism. Readings will include a variety of nonfiction travel narratives, such as: Flaubert in Egypt, Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, Chatwin's Songlines, Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express, Phillips’ The European Tribe, and Kincaid's A Small Place.
