Spring 2022 - WL 308 D100

Travel and Trade (4)

Class Number: 7891

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 10 – Apr 11, 2022: Wed, 2:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores how travel and trade contribute to literary history and the exchange of ideas across space. May focus on chronicles of discovery, travel writing, accounts of religious pilgrimage, mythical quest narratives, or other literary texts dealing with the traveler's experience of cross-cultural encounter. This course may be repeated for credit when different topics are offered. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

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World Literature 308   The Rhythm of the Road: Travel as Cultural Ecology

Drawing upon global fiction, film, and visual art, this interdisciplinary classroom course acquaints students with the increasingly important fields of ecological and environmental criticism.  First, we explore the ways in which to change one’s environment through travel is to alter the rhythms of ones being.  By tracing artistic and cultural narratives through human responses to the places of the world — in tandem with what has come to be called “planetary consciousness” — our conversations will examine the narrative and visual modes by which particular environments are culturally engaged. 

Our course texts range from the Epic of Gilgamesh’s interrogation of urban and wilderness experience to aesthetic evocations of Japan’s so-called “snow country,” the cadences of contemporary Shanghai or those of the rural hinterlands of Africa and the Australian outback.  In learning to construct a planetary perspective onto the aesthetics of place, we learn to analyze the displacements of human existence alongside the rhythms and spaces of world fiction and film.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Understanding Ecocriticism in relation to Literature.
  • Continuing comprehension of terms & concepts of cultural comparison.
  • Awareness of the “planetary” as a literary domain.
  • Comprehension of literary and cultural performativity.

Grading

  • Participation/Attendance 15%
  • Planetary Rhythm Project 15%
  • Short Quiz 15%
  • Short Paper 20%
  • Term Paper 30%
  • Poetry Response 5%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Epic of Gilgamesh  [David Ferry (tr)]                            FSG 978-0374523831                        
Snow Country  Kawabata Yasunari                          Vintage  978-0679761044                    
Running Away  J-P Toussaint                                  Dalkey 978-1564785671                       
Don’t Let’s Go the Dogs Tonight   Alexandra Fuller   Random House 978-0375758997         

FILMS:    Walkabout (UK-Australia) + Chocolat (France / Claire Denis dir.)


Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN SPRING 2022

Teaching at SFU in spring 2022 will involve primarily in-person instruction, with safety plans in place.  Some courses will still be offered through remote methods, and if so, this will be clearly identified in the schedule of classes.  You will also know at enrollment whether remote course components will be “live” (synchronous) or at your own pace (asynchronous).

Enrolling in a course acknowledges that you are able to attend in whatever format is required.  You should not enroll in a course that is in-person if you are not able to return to campus, and should be aware that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who may need class or exam accommodations, including in the context of remote learning, are advised to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112) as early as possible in order to prepare for the spring 2022 term.