RACE, TRAVEL AND EMPIRE
Spring quarter 2003 University of Oregon
Instructor:Nerissa S. Balce, Visiting faculty for the Program in Ethnic Studies
Mailbox: Ethnic Studies, 201 McKenzie Hall
Office: 110 Gerlinger Hall, Center on Diversity and Community
E-mail:
The Course
The course examines the cultures of travel and the connection between writing, conquest and U.S. Empire-building from the late 19thcentury to the early 21stcentury. Our course begins with the premise that travel narratives illuminate the relationship between writing and imperial practice, or the violence and romance of imperial travel. We will trace the origins of travel writing to Europe with the European culture of travel dating back to the eighteenth century, when young males from the English aristocracy were encouraged to embark on their “Grand Tour” of the world as part of their education as young nobles. Travel functioned as an ideological formation — a young English man learned that there were socially proscribed roles that were expected of a young lord such as the burdens of colonization. In many travel accounts, the language of imperialism, Anglo-Saxon superiority, racism, Orientalism and patriarchy were inscribed in the texts. Some travel writers, however, turned the language of imperialism on its head and exposed the violence of Empire-building.
Our course examines literary and filmic narratives of imperial travel beginning with Joseph Conrad’s late 19thcentury travel narrative of the Congo to contemporary American incarnations — world’s fairs, white women’s travel accounts of U.S.-occupied Philippines, the popular novelTarzan of the Apes, films on Vietnam and the reality TV showSurvivor. As we discuss the tropes of Empire in travel narratives, we will also examine the concept of the U.S. Empire as a historical and contemporary formation, or what an American Empire meant in the 19thcentury and what it means today in the 21stcentury. Themes for our conversation will include but are not limited to imperial whiteness, colonial consciousness, feminisms against Empire, transnational solidarities, and imperial nostalgia.
Requirements:
1. Class participation- Bring the assigned readings to each class sessions and be ready to discuss the following: key arguments; theoretical concept or term presented by the author; your critique. Some of the readings are demanding and require patience, attentiveness and repeated reading. (20%)
2. Attendance and completion of assignments (including readings) -You are allowed two absences. An excess of two absences lowers your grade by one letter grade. (20%)
3. Mid-term Exam-The exam will cover the critical concepts from the assigned readings from weeks 1 to 6. The format of the exam will be a definition of terms and essay questions. (30%)
4. Final Exam(30%)
Required texts:[Books are available atMother Kali’s Bookstore, 720 E. 13thAve., Eugene. (541) 343-4864.]
Joseph Conrad,Heart of Darkness(Dover edition)
Edgar Rice Burroughs,Tarzan of the Apes(Dover edition)
Electronic course packet will be available in the Knight Library.
READINGS
WEEK 1EMPIRE AS A WAY OF LIFE
4/1 TIntroduction: Reading Rachel Corrie’s Travel Notes
4/3 ThWilliam Appleman Williams,Empire as a Way of Life(excerpt) 3-33.
WEEK 2THE RHETORIC OF EMPIRE: PAST AND PRESENT
4/8 TDavid Stannard,American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World(excerpt) 97-146 and photos.
4/10 ThPatrick Holland and Graham Huggan,Tourists with Typewriters(excerpt) 1-25.
WEEK 3:LATE19thCENTURY: CONRAD AND EMPIRE
4/15-4/17Joseph Conrad,Heart of Darkness(one week for the novel)
WEEK 4:TRAVEL CULTURES IN EARLY20THCENTURYU.S.
4/22 TRobert Rydell,All the World’s a Fair: All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916(excerpt) 154-207
4/24 ThFilm screening and discussion:Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs and Empire
WEEK 5WHITE WOMEN IN THE PHILIPPINES AFTER 1898
4/29Lecture: Filipino Savagery and Docility in White Women’s Travel Narratives
5/1Kimberly Alidio,“When I Get Home, I Want to Forget”: Memory and Amnesia in the Occupied Philippines, 1901-1904in the journalSocial Text105-122.
WEEK 6MID-TERMEVALUATIONAND ASSIGNMENT
5/6 TIn-class mid-term exam
5/8 ThNo class butassignment—Objects of Travel
Collect an image of a contemporary advertisement or cultural object that invokes the rhetoric of travel (a film, artifact, etc). Submit a color copy or cut out of the image. Submit a one page critique along with the image.
Assignment due May 13, Tuesday.
WEEK 7EARLY20thCENTURY: BLACKNESSANDWHITE IMPERIAL MASCULINITY
5/13 and 15Edgar Rice Burroughs,Tarzan of the Apes(one week for the novel)
WEEK 8LATE20th: VIETNAMAND THE TROPE OF EROTICIZATION
5/20David Spurr,Rhetoric of Empire(excerpt) 170-183.
Film screening:Apocalypse Now, Redux, directed byFrancis Ford Coppola(2001)
5/22Continuation ofApocalypse Now
WEEK 9VIETNAM ANDTHE TROPE OFRESISTANCE
5/27 TDavid Spurr,Rhetoric of Empire(excerpt) 184-201.
Film screening and discussion,Regret to Informdirected byBarbara Sonneborn(2000)
5/29 ThContinuation ofRegret to Inform
WEEK 10TRAVELIN THE 21STCENTURY AND REALITYTV
6/ 3Renato Rosaldo,“Imperialist Nostalgia” inCulture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis,68-87.
6/5Viewing and Lecture: Scenes fromSurvivor Marquesas