Graduate Liberal Studies

Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT 06459
860-685-2900

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HUMS602

Jungle and Desert Adventures - Canceled

Meg Weisberg

*This course has been canceled for the Spring 2016 Semester*
January 25, 2016 - May 6, 2016
Tuesdays, 6pm-8:30pm
Location: 41 Wyllys 115

Information subject to change; syllabi and book lists are provided for general reference only. This seminar offers 3 credits, and enrollment is limited to 18 students. This course is open to auditors.

Click here for Syllabus  Professor's website  Click here to return to courses

 Meg Wisberg Bio Photo

This course analyzes the constellation of images and sensations conjured up by the terms "jungle" and "desert," which are opposite but equally extreme. We will explore European adventure tales and travelogues, contemporary non-western novels, children's books, and films in a quest to understand the imaginative power of these landscapes. 

Through our readings of such a wide range of texts, we will ask questions such as, what do these landscapes signify? How do descriptions of landscape convey a sense of individual and collective identity? What psychological terrain is explored when writing about extreme landscapes? And finally, how do we each see ourselves in relation to landscape? What is our own version of an "extreme" landscape?

  • Full Course Description

    This course analyzes the constellation of images and sensations conjured up by the terms "jungle" and "desert," which are opposite but equally extreme. We will explore European adventure tales and travelogues, contemporary non-western novels, children's books, and films in a quest to understand the imaginative power of these landscapes. 

    Through our readings of such a wide range of texts, we will ask questions such as, what do these landscapes signify? How do descriptions of landscape convey a sense of individual and collective identity? What psychological terrain is explored when writing about extreme landscapes? And finally, how do we each see ourselves in relation to landscape? What is our own version of an "extreme" landscape?

  • Readings

    Readings

    (*=Bookstore; M=Moodle)
    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World [*]
    Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness [*]
    Desert travelogue excerpts from Gertrude Bell, Wilfred Thesiger, Pierre Loti, and T. E. Lawrence [M]
    Ibrahim al-Koni, The Bleeding of the Stone [*]
    Amos Tutuola, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts [*]
    Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North [*]
    Luís Sepúlveda, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories [*]
    Excerpts from Tintin and Babar books [M]

  • Assignments and Grading

    Assignments and Grading

    • Brief responses to each assignment, posted online (10%)
    • One 3-page close reading of a particular passage (20%)
    • One 12-15 page research paper comparing two works (50%)
    • In-class presentation (20%)
  • Weekly Schedule

    WEEK 1: Introduction Background information on European colonialism in the 19th-20th centuries; discussion of the “symbolic lexicon” of extreme landscapes; in-class readings of excerpts from travelogues, advertisements, etc; discussion of nature television show; introduction to texts and class practices.

    WEEK 2: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World

    WEEK 3-4: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

    WEEK 5: Excerpts from desert travelogues; “Lawrence of Arabia”

    WEEK 6: Theories of travel writing, nature writing, otherness, and seeing Excerpts from important texts by scholars such as Mary Louise Pratt, Lawrence Buell, Rob Nixon, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Homi Bhabha. [First short paper due this week]

    WEEK 7: Ibrahim al-Koni, The Bleeding of the Stone

    WEEK 8: Amos Tutuola, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

    WEEK 9-10: Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

    WEEK 11: Luís Sepúlveda, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

    WEEK 12: Children’s books (Tintin, Babar, etc); wrap-up discussion. [Research paper due this week]