First-Year Writing Seminar: Travel Writing: Exploring Place with Purpose

Catalog description

Travel writing has existed since Herodotus trekked the ancient world. Today, from TripAdvisor and blogs to long-form journalism and books, we routinely read about travel, whether it’s planning a trip to Shanghai or to the local coffee shop. To be such a writer, however, is not without its challenges. From describing the “Other” to struggling to redefine the notion of travel in a pandemic, travel writing can be as powerful as it is exciting. Through readings and exercises, we will explore the difference between basic narratives and more career-focused practices of journalism. Students will delve into larger questions by focusing on places, finding their voice as they create their arguments related to themes presented in class. We will question cliché in travel writing and perfect our placemaking skills, using New York City as a living laboratory for classroom exercises. Expect a broad range of readings to debate the good and the bad, featuring authors like Marco Polo, Freya Stark, Alain de Botton, Adam Gopnik, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Bill Bryson as well as stories from journalistic publications like The New York Times and Afar.