INWARD ODYSSEY: Travelogues as Windows into World History

Inward Odyssey:

Travelogues as Windows into World History

Course Number 79-293

Spring 2017

Benjamin Reilly

Associate Professor,

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

Email: breilly2@qatar.cmu.edu

Web Site: www.qatar.cmu.edu/~breilly2/odyssey

All assignments must be submitted to www.turnitin.com

Course Name: Inward Odyssey Spring 2017 Class ID: 14319184

Password: odyssey

Course Overview

Inward Odyssey will explore world history by examining it through the outward-looking eyes of travel writers, on the assumption that travelogues, though supposedly written about the “other,” in fact provide crucial insights about the mindset of the culture that produced them, and often serve as a vehicle for cultural self-exploration or even self-criticism. In terms of content, this course is intended to overlap with World History, Islam and the European World, and US-Arab Encounters. However, this course is intended to be a skills course, designed not to teach students about specific historical periods, but rather to give students the tools they need to conduct their own critical explorations into the historical past.

The purposes of the class, therefore, are to:

Ø Introduce students to the “travelogue” genre of literary expression and the issues related to using travelogues as primary sources for historical investigations.

Ø Extend student knowledge about some key events in our shared global history

Ø Improve student research and writing skills

Ø Improve student documentary analysis skills

Ø Improve student public presentation skills

Ø Encourage students to participate actively in their own education

By the end of the course:

ü Students will demonstrate the ability to apply theories about travelogue writing to the discussion of specific documents

ü Students will show improved skills in distinguishing between different type of documents and identifying each document’s tone, bias, intended audience, assumptions, and omissions

ü Students will show improved skills in writing analytical essays that pose an argument and defend it with relevant information from primary or secondary source texts

ü Students will take charge of their own education through class presentations based on independent research and by taking responsibility for facilitating class discussion

Readings

In Inward Odyssey, students will be asked to read a number of travelogues, though for the purposes of the class we’ve defined the “travelogues” somewhat loosely as any document (fictional or non-fictional) in which the subject travels between cultures, OR an ethnographic document that recounts the history and practices of another culture. In general, the work reading load will average at between 25-50 pages per class session. Since the course designers, in their enthusiasm, managed to collect more materials than the course has time to cover, students will have the opportunity to vote at the start of the class as to the course’s exact reading list, within the limits set by the instructors. The list of all possible sources that the class could consider, in chronological order, is as follows:

Homer, Odyssey (etext)

Herodotus, The History of Herodotus (etext)

Tacitus’ Germania

The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor (etext)

The Song of Roland

Nasir-I Khusraw, Book of Travels

Marco Polo, Travels (etext)

The Travels of John Mandeville

Ibn Battuta, Travels…

Cabeza de Vaca, the Journey of Cabeza de Vaca… (etext)

Sidi Ali Reis, The Mirror of Countries (etext)

Montagne, On Cannibals (etext)

Sir Walter Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana (etext)

Moüette, Travels of the Sieur Moüette in the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (etext)

Voltaire, Candide

Ahmad Bin Qassim, Book of the Protector of Religion against the Unbelievers

Al-Mawsuli, The Book of the Travels of the Priest Ilyas

Al-Ghassani, Journey to the Minister to Ransom the Captive

George Psalmanaazaar, Description of Formosa

Equiano, The Interesting Narrative... (etext)

R. H. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (etext)

Lucie Duff Gordon, Letters from Egypt 1863-65 (Google Books)

Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (etext)

R. E. Colston, Life in the Egyptian Deserts

William Francis Ainsworth, A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition

Henry Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 2

Ruyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King (etext)

Mary French-Sheldon, Sultan to Sultan (Google Books)

T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (etext)

Amen Rihani, Maker of Modern Arabia

P. J. O’Rourke, A Ramble Through Lebanon

Tayler, Facing the Congo

Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah

Stanislaw Lem, Solaris

All sources are available on line, and can be accessed by clicking on the links below.

We also encourage students to refer to the following secondary sources for theoretical work concerning travelogue writing:

Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions (the author argues that, for early modern travelers, travel writing helped reinforce rituals of power and control- while “marveling” at the world, Europeans were also symbolically taking possession of it)
Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes (similar to Greenblatt, Pratt argues that travelogues [especially those written by men] often hide assumptions about European control over colonial subjects, and that we should also consider the [mostly suppressed] writings of the non-European subjects)
François Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus: The Representation of the Other in the Writing of History (argues that travel writers often resort to inversion- describing the “other” as the opposite of the “self”- since such characterizations are easier for the traveler and his reader to grasp)
Hulme and Young, The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (a good overall book about the genre)

In addition, I encourage interested students to examine the following list of other travel writings, some of which deal with the same geographical regions or the same time periods as the travelogues assigned for the class. Students may wish to check out this list when considering topics for the term paper.

Assignments and Grading

Grades will be assigned based on the following schema:

Short Assignments (eight total) 25%
Research Paper 25%
Class Presentations/Facilitation 20%
Class Participation 30%

1. Short Assignments

Over the course of the semester, students must turn in a total of 8 short one-page essay assignments. Students have two options for each assignment:

Students may write essays on one of the questions on the study question list.
Alternatively, students may write a comparative essay, exploring similarities and differences between the document under review that class section and a previous document the class has examined (for example, comparing Equiano and Defoe on African slavery, or Mandeville’s Travels with the Odyssey).

The assignments are due on the day of class in which the study question is assigned OR on the last day of class that deals with that document, if the second option is picked. Papers that are late will be marked down 10% per day (including weekends), and after three calendar days they will not be accepted at all. Students may only submit one assignment per class; this means that students had better start early and submit at least one every other week or else they will run out of time by the semester’s end. Students must answer the questions in an essay format, with a clearly-articulated one-paragraph introduction, several body paragraphs to support that introduction, and a brief conclusion. The short assignments will be graded on your ability to formulate a convincing argument, firmly based on evidence from the attached document, which clearly addresses the question asked. You may also wish to check out Purdue university web site for hints for ESL students on American essay writings: it is located at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/esl/eslaudience.html. For further assistance, click here for a sample essay. In all, the short assignments will account for 25% of your grade. Click here for the grading rubric for written assignments.

2. Research Paper

Students must complete one long research paper, between 6 and 8 pages in length, on any topic related to the material covered in the course. For example, students may consider theories of travel writing in general, or take a look at a travelogue not considered by the class (click here for our list of other travel writings), or else compare two travelogues in order to explain differences between them. All students will be required to meet with the instructor by mid-April to help work out possible paper topics, and we will spend the April 19^th class session in a round table discussion/brainstorming session centered around the term papers. Students will be graded on clarity, style, and the use of appropriate evidence to defend a clearly-articulated argument. Purely narrative papers- which tell a story rather than analyzing an issue- will receive very poor grades. Again, please do not hesitate to contact myself or the ICC staff for help. The research paper will account for 25% of your grade. Papers that are late will be marked down 10% per day (including weekends), and after three calendar days they will not be accepted at all. Click here for the grading rubric for written assignments.

PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism means to take the ideas, writing, or arguments of others and pass them off as your own. It is a serious academic offense. If you quote directly from a book, website, or other source, you must enclose that material in quotation marks and indicate the source using a footnote (click here for a guide on how to include footnotes in a text). You must also cite the sources of ideas you use that are the intellectual property of a specific author (such as ideas gained from independent research). Sharing your paper with other students in the course is also an academic violation. All cases of plagiarism will be handled severely, and the most common applied penalty will be failure in the course.

3. Class Presentations/Facilitation

All students are expected, at least once during the semester, to perform two roles: 1) to present a short (20-30 minute) presentation concerning the historical background of an assigned travelogue, and 2) serve as the “facilitator” of a discussion of that travelogue following their presentation. Overall, a facilitator’s goal is to provide information about the document, author, and time period that is necessary for class discussion and then interject with questions and comments to keep discussion flowing freely. The facilitator is also expected to be an expert on the reading, who other students turn to for clarification. Students will be assigned to specific readings at the beginning of class- depending on class size, students will work as teams, or may have to volunteer to present/facilitate more than once each, in which case they will earn extra class credit. Students are strongly encouraged to approach their class presentation creativity- feel free to make use of maps, photographs and other visual materials, secondary sources, or any other materials to help educate your fellow students (and your instructor) about the document and the time period under discussion. Your performance as a class presenter/facilitator will account for 20% of your grade.

4. Class Participation

Students are expected to participate actively in class discussion, and can guarantee themselves full marks if they come to discussion sections fully prepared (with the readings in hand) and are ready to speak, and listen, to other students. It is not necessary to have brilliant insights every week to receive full marks- regular attendance and active participation will be sufficient. Attentive listening and helpful questions during another student’s class participations is also an important part of class participation. Class participation will account for 30% of your grade.

LATE WORK POLICY: Papers that are received after the due date are marked down 10% for the first day, 20% for the second day, and 30% for the third. After the third day the student will receive a 0 on the assignment. For the purposes of this policy, any work received on the day of class but after the class is over is assessed the 10% penalty. This penalty is necessary, since if we were to accept late work without penalty, we would in effect be rewarding bad behavior and penalizing students who were faithful to the deadlines.

Course Calendar

Note: click here for the study question sheet, and remember that you should come to class ready to discuss the study questions for each reading!

M Jan 16 Course Introduction, Travelogue Theory, Source Selection

W Jan 18 Homer’s Odyssey

M Jan 23 Herodotus' History, pp. 1-30

Salman

W Jan 25 Herodotus' History, pp. 31-61

Ryn

M Jan 30 The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor

Roda

W Feb 1 Nasir-I Khusraw, Book of Travels [In Blackboard]

M Feb 6 Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, pp. 1-23 (sections 1-39)

Reem al-Kobaisi and Amna Abdulthawab

W Feb 8 Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo..., pp. 23-49 (sections 40-63)

Reem al-Kobaisi and Amna Abdulthawab

M Feb 13 The Travels of John Mandeville, Prologue, Ch. 6, 7, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20 [In Blackboard]

W Feb 15 The Travels of John Mandeville, Ch. 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 [In Blackboard]

M Feb 20 The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Ch. I, II, IV, VI, VII, IX, XII, XIII

Amira

W Feb 22 Ibn Battuta, Ch. XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXIII

M Feb 27 Cabeza De Vaca, The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca, pp. 1-20

Al-Dana Al-Sulaiti and Amna Al-Hajj

W March 1 De Vaca, The Journey of Cabeza De Vaca, pp. 20-47

Al-Dana Al-Sulaiti and Amna Al-Hajj

4 Short Assignments must be submitted by this date!

March 5-11 SPRING BREAK

M March 13 George Psalmanaazaar, Description of Formosa, Chapters I, III, IV, VII, XIII, XV (that’s pages 176-178, 192-196, 198-214, 219-225, 243-248, and 253-260 of the PDF, and pages 145-147, 161-167, 167-179, 184-190, 206-209, and 214-221 of the printed page numbers in the book)

Najlaa

W March 15 Voltaire, Candide, pp. 20-84 (Chapters I-XX) [In Blackboard]

Al-Dana Al-Mohannadi and Reem Al-Emadi

M March 20 Voltaire, Candide, pp. 84-144 (Chapters XXI-XXX) [In Blackboard]

Al-Dana Al-Mohannadi and Reem Al-Emadi

W March 22 Ahmad Bin Qassim, Book of the Protector of Religion against the Unbelievers [In Blackboard]