Transcript title
Pop Culture: Travel Literature
Credits
4
Grading mode
Standard letter grades
Total contact hours
40
Lecture hours
40
Recommended preparation
WR 121Z.
Course Description
Cross-cultural study of travel as exploration, personal narrative, anthropological inquiry and social criticism of places and peoples represented as "other" or "exotic." Examines popular culture as depicted in genres such as travel memoirs, journalism, advertising, educational videos and feature films that critique touristic assumptions.
Course learning outcomes
1. Identify the varieties of travel writing as geographical discovery, personal narrative, anthropological inquiry, and sociopolitical criticism in stories that represent peoples and places as "other" or "exotic."
2. Define and illustrate principal literary elements of narrative fiction (plot, character, theme, point of view, setting, symbol, style), using well-selected examples from representative works.
3. Analyze relationships among selected elements of literary or cinematic form and thematic content (such as setting and characterization, style and theme, or camera work and point of view) within a work of narrative fiction or film, to explain how these elements interact to shape the meaning and impact of individual works.
4. Analyze relationships between travel texts and other media of popular culture (such as advertising, music, comics, art, television) to explain how this genre expresses cultural contexts (values and beliefs, historical background, social and political realities).
5. Use comparison/contrast analysis to demonstrate significant differences and similarities between selected works of narrative fiction and/or film (such as in fiction by different authors; in fiction from different sub-genres; in fiction and film adaptation of the same or different works by an individual author).
6. Demonstrate effective writing skills in when communicating one’s interpretations, using relevant, well-selected evidence from works of narrative fiction and/or film in order to illustrate and support one's argument.
7. Writing in Context: Identify and practice the role of collaborating to create knowledge through sharing formal or informal writing in the classroom.
8. for a sequence of any two Pop Culture courses: Identify and illustrate mixed genres in popular culture (such as science fiction travel); analyze the products of popular culture as not only reflections of social values, but attempts to resolve cultural contradictions.
General education/Related instruction lists
