Time Schedule:
Laura Eshleman
C LIT 322
Seattle Campus
Topics designated by individual instructors.
Class description
This course explores the literature of transpacific travel primarily from two major traditions on either side of the Pacific Ocean: The United States and China. By the mid-1800s, travel between these two countries was on the rise. Students, missionaries, businessmen, politicians, journalists, military personnel, and other writers were crossing the Pacific Ocean for a variety of reasons, sometimes for education or work, sometimes for national or political reasons, sometimes for personal gain or belief. In this course, we will read a selection of transpacific travel-related writings with a set of questions in mind: Why did Chinese and Americans cross the Pacific? What were the stories that were informing their decisions to make short or long term relocations to a "strange" country far away? How did writers imagine the space of the Pacific Ocean and the people living in the country on the other side of the Ocean? How did cross-Pacific interactions in the nineteenth century lead to the Sino-American literary relations of the twentieth century?
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
