OSHER 301 - Getting Lost to Find Ourselves: An Exploration of American Travel and Adventure Narratives

Roots or routes? It is common wisdom that we must put roots down to feel a true sense of place, but what does it mean that so many of us desire horizontal movement through the world, its landscapes, and its cultures, as well? We will examine the human impulse to travel and explore the world, as well as the need we seem to have to tell the stories (and show the photos) of our journeys. Americans in the 20th Century have had the wealth and the inclination to see and interpret the rest of the world up close--but what do we really see when we travel? In this class we will study the travels and literary records of such prominent American travelers/adventurers as Jack London, Amelia Earhart, Jack Kerouac, Cheryl Strayed, and Jon Krakauer to see what their wanderlust tells us about our own. We will share their travel stories--and our own--along the way.