Vertiefungsseminar Take me Away English Authors from Travelling to Tourism Do 12:30-14:00

Take me Away – English Authors from Travelling to Tourism 02.09.15 This seminar is already overbooked and the number of places is limited. Therefore, an online registration is unfortunately no longer possible. -The signora had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, -no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart. Oh, Lucy!” E.M. Forster A Room with a View There is but one word to use in regard to [the Americans abroad] – vulgar; vulgar, vulgar. Their ignorance – their stingy, grudging, defiant, attitude towards everything European – their perpetual reference of all things to some American standard or precedent which exists only in their own unscrupulous wind-bags … On the other hand, we seem a people of character, we seem to have energy, capacity and intellectual stuff in ample measure. What I have pointed at as our vices are the elements of the modern man with culture quite left out. It’s the absolute and incredible lack of culture that strikes you in common travelling Americans. (Henry James to his mother, 13 Oct. 1869) I have seen some nice Americans and I still love my country. (addendum to the above, 16 Oct. 1869) This course examines the development of a new business – tourism – and its effect on society as well as its depiction in literature through the years. Through tourism, not only did the way travellers experience foreign countries undergo a profound change, but so did other people’s perception of travellers – or more precisely then: tourists. In the course of time, moreover, the cultural phenomenon developed that although it is impossible in our days never to be a tourist - nobody wants to be a tourist. All of us seek (or pretend to do so) to find places off the beaten track. As Evelyn Waugh already termed it: -The tourist is the other fellow.” In this seminar we will look at examples of English travel writing, but also take a look at novels with tourism as main topic and the role of tourism in cultural studies. Literature: E.M. Forster A Room with a View Julian Barnes England, England and selected examples of travel writing (e.g. Charles Dickens, Henry James and others) The two novels will be made available at the campus book store Stern-Verlag. All other text will be provided in class. LeistungsnachweisBNs can be obtained through active participation in the course. Details will be communicated in class. There will be no chance to hand in written texts in order to obtain a BN after the last week of the seminar. Anglistik IV: Modern English Literature Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2015/16 Thielen Michaela