The third paper for this course will require you to write about two assigned readings that were NOT on the first paper or the midterm: the travel narratives we've been reading (Swift, Celebi, Basho, Montagu) and Kant. You will get a choice of assigned topics, but the crafting of topics should not be solely up to me. After all, one of the skills we've been implicitly working on in class--and directly practiing in your second papers--is identifying good interpretive questions. What would be some useful ways to bring these various readings into productive and interesting dialogue with each other?
Respond to this post with a suggested topic for the third paper. Your topic should (a) require the writer to discuss two of the texts listed above, (b) involve a minimum of secondary research, (c) be narrow enough that 2nd-year college student can write at least six pages of thoughtful ideas about it, but broad enough to require more than four. You can also respond by kindly and collegially suggesting modifications to a classmate's proposed topic.
UPDATE: If you're not comfortable proposing something as structured and formal as a paper topic, consider responding to this thread with some more general observations about the travel narratives we've read. What are some interesting (specific and non-obvious) similarities among some of these narratives? In what specific and non-obvious ways do some of them differ?
Deadline: Friday (4/8), start of class.
9 comments:
One idea on the third paper would be to compare the writer's perspectives on their own lands both before and after their travels. For this topic one could use any combination of the travel works Celebi, Swift, Basho, or Montagu. In order to fully answer the question some secondary work could be done on the lives of the authors or alternatively, in Swift's case the life of the narrator could be researched in the portions of the Travels not read in class. One could also research Swift’s life and use that for the comparison, though that idea might take the writer more than six pages to convey. In order to organize this topic one might choose to introduce the Ottoman Empire as opposed to the British Empire in their respective times and contexts before moving on to a discussion of the texts and one’s secondary sources in order to compare the author’s initial and/or final perspectives on their homelands.
I think the flip side of Margaret’s question would be looking at the stereotypes of people encountered in the different travel narratives. For example, how does Montagu stereotype the Turkish people (or men and women separately)? How does Celebi stereotype, well, everyone he meets? How do Swift’s imaginary societies stereotype his own society? (I know we talked about this one in class a lot.) Does Basho even stereotype? (I feel like all he describes are landscapes). What does a lack of stereotyped characters show?
Do different writers describe the same stereotype differently? Or describe different stereotypes similarly? How does Swift’s fictional stereotyping differ from factual accounts? Is it more successful?
For this topic, one could research the biographical history of the authors to see if they had any specific prejudices or if any existed in either their societies they came from or the societies their visiting. Or one could research possible reasons behind prevalent stereotypes (ex. Historical, religious, war?)
I thought this morning's discussion about the cultural assumptions that a traveller carried with them and the approach that they took to engaging with a foreign culture was interesting. Perhaps this could be incorporated into a question along the lines of:
Discuss the role of the cultural assumptions and biases of the author by comparing and contrasting two travel narratives.
I have chosen to respond to katieburg5’s topic proposal. I liked it the best so far out of all of the other proposals. I thought writing a paper about how people are stereotyped would be interesting. I would suggest a modification. How about comparing how Montagu stereotypes men and women separately with how Celebi stereotypes the men and women that he encounters? How are Montagu’s men different or similar to Celebi’s men and how are Montagu’s women different or similar to Celebi’s women? Also, for secondary research, I really liked katiebug5’s idea about researching the authors’ histories to look for prejudices and discover possible reasons behind why they stereotyped people a certain way that they did.
I really liked Shaun's idea of cultural assumptions. The assumptions that the writer had about the culture before going to their destination really impacted how they thought. It makes me wonder how each story woulad have been different if the traveler knew absolutly nothing about their destination before they went there. It raises questions like would they have more or less respect for the land they went to? would they have enjoyed their time more or less? would the even feel compelled to write about their journey afterwards?
It seems that all of these ideas have something to do with someone's perspective. What if the paper was dealing with how the writers deal with the things that are going on around them based on their perspective. For example do female writers have a different perspective on culture of foreigners? Are women more likely to focus on one type of argument such as clothes, fashion, culture as oppose to men who would focus more on philsophy and conquering foreign lands. How does the way that they have been brought up change the way that they choose to view life and the places that they travel to.
Spinning off of Shaun’s suggestion, and in recognition of how difficult it can be to see one’s own cultural assumptions and biases as I have learned in this class, I suggest a question comparing two authors in terms of their awareness of their own cultural assumptions and biases. A paper I’d like to write, but probably won’t pass muster for this assignment, would compare my own basic assumptions and biases to the travel narrative authors.
One way that the travel narratives are different is that not only do the writers write about different places they are travelling to and within, they writers themselves come from different places and cultures. A good topic would be to compare and contrast how the writer's interpret what they are seeing and how it is shaped by their own past, which will require secondary research. For example, Celebi and Basho are both writing about their own homelands, but Swift and Montagu are writing about foreign lands. How does this change their travel narratives?
I do like Shaun's idea and some of the other ideas about comparing some of the authors' awareness of their own biases.
But I would like to flesh out ideas revolving around points were possible ethnocentrism from the author is actually refuted by the author himself - for example, when LMWM talks about how inoculations aren't even used in Britain...
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