Course code:
From prehistoric times the journey into the unknown has been both a reality and a metaphor of human experience.
This course will follow the archetype of the voyage through major literary narratives and road movies. Its written and class assignments will draw from students’ own experience as travelers.
Using Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces as a theoretical framework, we’ll move on to Homer’s Odyssey (selections), Melville’s Moby Dick, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Peter Mattheissen’s Far Tortuga and the new “scroll” version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. We’ll watch Apocalypse Now; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Stranger than Paradise; Powwow Highway; Wild at Heart; and The African Queen. Assignments will include in-class reports on students’ own journeys and a nonfiction creative writing section on travel narrative.
Prerequisites:
None
Always visit the Registrar's Office for the official course catalog and schedules.