Time Schedule:
Andrea Opitz
C LIT 396
Seattle Campus
Offered by visitors or resident faculty. Content varies.
Class description
Gender, Travel, and Empire: In this class, we will investigate the different ways in which knowledge about race, gender, "otherness", travel, and empire is produced and treated in 19th Century travelogues, 20th Century film and fiction, and theory. We will read autobiographical, as well as fictive travel accounts, and discuss several films to see how these texts ask questions about the relationship between travel and home, self and other, interior and exterior spaces, gendered, raced and national identities. We will also read some contemporary travel theory, and some "classic" postcolonial theory (Said, Fanon, Spivak) to help us frame our interrogations. Students will write several short response papers, one longer final paper, and give one presentation. Be prepared to engage critically with a range of different texts, to participate actively in class discussion, and to enjoy a short and stimulating A-Term. Texts: Mary Seacole's Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Sara Suleri's Meatless Days, and Ingeborg Bachmann's The Book of Franza, Passage to India (film), Indochine (film), Morocco (film). A course reader will be available at Ave Copy.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
