English 360.301    Comp. Lit 361.401
DRLB 2 C8
David Espey   Bennett 203    215-898-7346
despey@english.upenn.edu    
Office Hours:  T-Th 2-3 and by Appt.

    “The grand object of traveling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean.”
                            --Dr. Samuel Johnson
 
    “Travelers since the Renaissance have returned to the Mediterranean
as a cultural Eden.  And yet…it has been turned into a comparative desert by
political and industrial fiascos and by the post-World War II influx of tourists.”
                    --Robert Eisner, Travelers to an Antique Land

To American, British, and European writers and travelers of the 20th century, the Mediterranean offered the pleasures of sun, sea, classical ruins, exotic cultures, erotic excitement, and escape from the oppressions of modern urban industrial society. This course will examine fiction and non-fiction about modern travel to the countries of the Mediterranean. Paul Theroux's travel book, The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the  Mediterranean, will provide the route of the course--from Spain eastward through France, Italy, the Balkan peninsula, Greece and Turkey, Syra, Israel and Palestine, then returning westward through North Africa.

We'll focus on the relation of literary modernism to travel; on the ways that modern writers romanticize Mediterranean culture, landscape, and the primitive; and on political and cultural issues arising from travel.  Written work for the course will include five short seminar papers (1-2 pp.), frequent e-mail postings, and mid-term and final essays which may be revised.  

Texts:      (House of Our Own Bookstore)

  The Pillars of Hercules       Paul Theroux               Movies:   Mediterraneo
              The Sun Also Rises             Ernest Hemingway               Cinema Paradiso
              Giovanni's Room          James Baldwin                             Zorba the Greek  
              Bread and Wine            Ignazio Silone            
              Death in Venice            Thomas Mann
      Turkish Reflections       Mary Lee Settle
              Mountolive                    Lawrence Durrell
              The Immoralist             Andre Gide
              The Stranger                 Albert Camus
               Coursepack                  Campus Copy Center

Tu., Jan. 14          Introduction

Th., Jan 16           Fussell, “That Splendid Enclosure,” “The New Heliopoly,”  
  Lawrence, “Sun”   Littlewood, “The Cult of the Sun”  (Packet)  I

Tu., Jan 21           Howe, “The Idea of the Modern”    (Packet), II
                            Hemingway, “A Clean, Well Lighted Place”
     Arnold, “Dover Beach”     Camus, “Love of Life”

Th., Jan. 23          Theroux, The Pillars of Hercules, 1-81 (Spain)
                             Fussell, “From Exploration to Travel to Tourism”   III, IV
             Capote, “A Train Ride Through Spain”  (Packet)

Tu., Jan 28           The Sun Also Rises     #1

Th. Jan. 30           The Sun Also Rises

Tu., Feb. 4            Giovanni's Room    I   

Th., Feb. 6            Giovanni's Room   II

Tu., Feb. 11          Theroux, 82-224  (France, Italy)  #2
              Hemingway, “Cat in the Rain”  (Packet)
              Tennyson, “Ulysses”

Th., Feb. 13          Mediterraneo  (movie)  III
             Tennyson, “The Lotos Eaters”

Tu., Feb. 18          Death in Venice      IV

Th., Feb. 20          Death in Venice      I

Tu., Feb. 25          Bread and Wine     #3

Th., Feb. 27          Bread and Wine

Tu., Mar. 4           Cinema Paradiso  (movie)  II
             Theroux, 244-288  (Slovenia, Croatia, Albania)

Th., Mar. 6           Theroux, 288-334 (Mediterranean Cruise)   III  (First essay due)
              Eisner  “Quo Vadis Now, Traveler?”
             
Tu., Mar. 18         Zorba the Greek  (movie)   IV
             Mary Morris, “Women and Travel”  (Packet)

Th., Mar 20         Theroux, 334-405  (Istanbul, Alexandria, Israel, Turkish Cyprus)  
              Jan Morris, “City of Yok”   I

Tu., Mar. 25         Turkish Reflections    II    
           
Th., Mar. 27         Turkish Reflections   III  (First essay revision due)
             “Armenian Holy Site Faces Ruin”  
             Feiler, from Walking the Bible (Packet)
      
Tu., Apr.  2           Mountolive, #4
 
Th., April 4          Mountolive

Tu., April 8         The Immoralist   IV

Th., April 10       The Immoralist    I, II

Tu., April 15       The Stranger    #5

Th., April 17       The Stranger             

Tu., April  22      Theroux, 406-482  (Syria, Greek Cyprus, Tunisia) III
    Bowles, “Tea on the Mountain” “By the Water,” “A Distant Episode”

Th., April 24       Theroux, 483-509 (Morocco)  IV   
                            “Remembering Paul Bowles”  (http://peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2002/0201/201wrwr.html)
Constantine Cafavy, “Ithaca”  (Packet)   
Review, Evaluations

Th., May 8          Final Essay Due  (For revision, first draft by May 5)