Early Modern Travel Narratives of the Americas

<p>Online Course. The early modern travel narrative provided the primary source of knowledge about the Americas to the European public. The information and perspectives presented within these narratives offer historians insight into both empirical observations and historical perceptions of the New World. The European imagination often shaped what the travel narrator paid attention to, expected to see, and documented in the text. We will read with and against the grain to attend to silences, tropes, and caricatures within the documents. We will learn from scholars of race and ethnicity, Indigenous studies, Black diaspora, women, gender, and sexuality studies, and borderlands studies to provide them the tools, vocabulary, and theories to articulate their own ideas. Furthermore, the course will engage literary theories to examine the travel narrative as a historical literary genre, and we will consider paratextual information including annotations, errors, in-line edits, illustrations, and captions in order to piece together their interpretations. The goal of this course is twofold: to introduce you to the history of early modern Atlantic empires and, subsequently, to provide you with the skills and informative scholarship to interrogate the power dynamics of the historical archive. You will emerge from the course better understanding the early modern European state of knowledge on the Americas and the skills to grapple with the costs and consequences of colonialism and imperialism both historically and in the present-day. You will be invited to engage your own scholarly and personal interests through the analytical lenses that they apply. Enrollment limited to 20 students.&#160;1 Credit. Session B: July 1 – August 2. Tuition: $5070. Technology Fee: $85.</p>