Event

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Event

3.02.981 S Travel Narratives in Fiction and Beyond -  


Event date(s) | room

Description

Travel narratives have been part of the European public sphere for centuries. They are connected with the histories of globalisation, of European imperial expansion, of 'exploration' and colonialism. Whether they are labelled as novel or memoir, they straddle the boundaries between literature, history and personal reporting, between fact and fiction, in their own characteristic ways. The term travel covers a wide range of different forms and purposes of mobility, individual and collective. It is entangled in multiple and complex ways with the geopolitical frameworks in which it occurs and is made possible (or indeed obstructed). There has been an abundance of research done already on many of the aspects of travel writing from the late middle ages to the present, and across different cultural contexts of travel and travel literature.
Against this background, this course offers spotlights on a diverse set of travel narratives, from the late 17th century (parts of William Dampier's New Voyage Round the World) across 18th century novelistic travel writing (Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey) and 19th century exploratory travel (Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa) to contemporary 21st century travel writing (Emmanuel Iduma's A Stranger's Pose).
These texts have been rarely read together, but the combination offers exciting additional insights. Students will become familiar with theoretical approaches to the concepts of travel and travel writing, as well as to their histories (including 'mobilities theory' and 'mobility justice'). We will then move on to engage and examine the various forms of travel writing in our primary texts, and seek out the connections that show how very different texts by very different writers/ travellers mutually shed light on each other.

The course will experiment with a combination of two formats:
• The groundwork for the seminar will be done in weekly meetings in the traditional seminar format.
• This will be complemented in the second half of the semester by a 'student conference', a bloc-meeting where all the student presentations will be given and discussed in a concentrated workshop format.
The student conference is planned for Friday January 22 (14-17.30) and Saturday January 23 (10-13, 14-17.30).
(Participants should make sure that they can be there for the entire student conference!)
A corresponding number of the weekly meetings in December and January will be suspended in compensation for the time required for the student conference.

The course will also involve an experimental form of co-teaching, connecting the universities of Oldenburg and Bremen. A course with a parallel programme is being taught at the University of Bremen by Dr Anna Auguscik.
The weekly meetings will take place in parallel at each university.
The student conference, and presentations, will include all students of both seminars (with complementary rather than identical topics) and will take place at the University of Oldenburg.

Students who are enrolled in the MA English Studies may obtain the 3 KP for their "project" if they engage in the preparation and organisation of the 'student conference' (a process that will allow them to gain experience with an important practical side of academic research). Please contact me if you are interested in being part of the student conference organisation team.

PRIMARY TEXTS - Students should purchase and read the following two texts:
(NOTE: The use of the right editions matters greatly.
Do not pay too much money for an edition that will be useless!
There are many overpriced and untrustworthy editions sold on Amazon and other outlets, often with deceptive fake 'scholarly-looking' covers. These are not suitable, and the prices are often higher than for the trustworthy editions. You should be able to find the two trustworthy editions at reasonable prices, either new or second-hand, or indeed as e-books. All those options are suitable!)

• Iduma, Emmanuel, A Stranger’s Pose. London: Abuja, 2018.
and
• Sterne, Laurence, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy [1768]. Ed. Paul Goring. London: Penguin Classics, 2001.
[or alternatively:
• Sterne, Laurence, A Sentimental Journey [1768] and Other Writings, ed. Tim Parnell, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 2008.]


• Regarding Kingsley's Travels in West Africa and Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, we will work with substantial extracts and selections; these will be made available on Stud.IP.

lecturer

Study fields

  • Studium generale / Gasthörstudium

SWS
--

Lehrsprache
englisch

Für Gasthörende / Studium generale geöffnet:
Ja

Hinweise zum Inhalt der Veranstaltung für Gasthörende
Travel narratives have been part of the European public sphere for centuries. They are connected with the histories of globalisation, of European imperial expansion, of 'exploration' and colonialism. Whether they are labelled as novel or memoir, they straddle the boundaries between literature, history and personal reporting, between fact and fiction, in their own characteristic ways. The term travel covers a wide range of different forms and purposes of mobility, individual and collective. It is entangled in multiple and complex ways with the geopolitical frameworks in which it occurs and is made possible (or indeed obstructed). There has been an abundance of research done already on many of the aspects of travel writing from the late middle ages to the present, and across different cultural contexts of travel and travel literature. Against this background, this course offers spotlights on a diverse set of travel narratives, from the late 17th century (parts of William Dampier's New Voyage Round the World) across 18th century novelistic travel writing (Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey) and 19th century exploratory travel (Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa) to contemporary 21st century travel writing (Emmanuel Iduma's A Stranger's Pose). These texts have been rarely read together, but the combination offers exciting additional insights. Students will become familiar with theoretical approaches to the concepts of travel and travel writing, as well as to their histories (including 'mobilities theory' and 'mobility justice'). We will then move on to engage and examine the various forms of travel writing in our primary texts, and seek out the connections that show how very different texts by very different writers/ travellers mutually shed light on each other.

Hinweise zur Teilnahme für Gasthörende
Sichere Beherrschung des Englischen auf dem CEF-Niveau C1 ist erforderlich.

(Changed: 24 Jun 2026)  |  Kurz-URL:Shortlink: https://uol.de/p28463en
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