AJ15056 Adrift in America: The Nomadic Imperative

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2000
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
James Soderholm, Ph.D. (lecturer), Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Michaela Hrazdílková
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This is a course on the rich varieties of restlessness and alienation depicted in contemporary American fiction and memoirs. That Americans are notoriously transient is almost a com-monplace of their national character. It remains for writers to represent this desire to travel as they variously stitch together the crazy-quilt of the United States. Our own journey will encompass Kerouac's On the Road, Nabokov's Lolita, Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Dickey's Deliverance, William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, and Patricia Hampl's A Romantic Education. Each work is a version of The Odyssey of Homer, an epic of inspired wandering to which we shall constantly refer in our attempt to chart the nature and patterns of a 'nomadic imperative' that seems distinctly American and that suggests the urgency of what Hampl calls "our loneliness for culture."
Assessment methods (in Czech)
Assessment: Students will be asked to keep a journal of responses to the required reading; these entries will often form the basis of class discussion. A long essay will be required at the end of term.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: every week.
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