Travel Writing: Reflecting on Culture and Experience

WINTER TERM 2005
January 6 - March 26, 2005

OSIE 388 – 5 credit hours transferable from the University of Oregon


Taught by English Professor John Gage, University of Oregon

Alain de Botton writes: “Journeys are the midwives of thought.” In this class, students will practice the art of non-fiction creative travel writing while exploring its techniques and insights by reading recent travel essays on Italy. A sequence of short writing assignments based on aspects of journeying is designed to encourage reflection about the meaning of travel and place in relation to one’s personal experience and to culture and history.

How does anticipation affect the experience of travel? How is journeying itself meaningful as a life passage? How do first impressions of unfamiliarity change into familiarity? How does a sense of being in a foreign place change one’s sense of self? How is history a part of place? What makes a place sacred?

These writings will go beyond a mere record of travel experience to explore its significance. Students will visit historical sites that will include non-tourist locations, city and country, and a place of religious pilgrimage. Excursions are planned for Venice, Florence, and other special places around Siena.

Students enrolled in the AHA Siena Study Abroad program also take an Italian class at their own level.

To explore Siena, visit: http://www.comune.siena.it/

Email Professor Gage with your questions about this course: jgage@uoregon.edu

To find out more about the AHA Siena study abroad program, visit:
http://www.aha-intl.org/program.php?place=siena2004

To ask questions about the AHA Siena program contact Roger Adkins at: radkins@uoregon.edu or visit the Study Abroad office on your campus.

Application deadline for Siena courses in Winter 2005: November 1, 2004

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