E304 9916 LITERATURES IN ENGLISH 1900-PRESENT
Dewitt Kilgore

2:30p-3:45p TR (30 students) 3 cr., A&H.

TOPIC:  “All Around the World:  Exploration and Adventure in
American and British Writing”

The twentieth century marked the peak of global exploration
motivated by imperial ambition and missionary zeal, commercial
interest and scientific curiosity.  This course considers the record
of that movement in British and American writing during the past
hundred years.  Through our reading of fictional and non-fictional
narratives of  travel, exploration, and adventure we will explore
the following questions:   How did English-speaking writers come to
know and exercise imaginative control over the world beyond their
native lands?  What are the conventions necessary to literary
narratives presenting the relationship between the West and the
rest; how were they created, maintained or subverted?  What role
does race and gender play in the making of western and “native”
persons?  And how have the rest used the tropes of exploration to
contest and rewrite their place in the Euro-American imagination?
During the course of the semester Africa, India, the Poles, the
American West and the space frontier will be among the places we
visit.  Authors will likely include Joseph Conrad, Ernest
Shackleton, James Baldwin, and Sara Wheeler.

This course requires two papers (3-5 typewritten pages, double-
spaced), two exams, one research team project, active and informed
classroom participation and attendance.