Medieval Travel Writing
- Course Code
- LITS 0170
- Course Type
- Tutorials
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
This course examines examples of travel writing from various medieval European languages. Medieval people travelled widely, for a variety of reasons: trade, diplomacy, religious pilgrimage, the lure of the unknown. Some wrote fascinating accounts of their travels and adventures. These narratives are accompanied by accounts of purely imaginary voyages, and of fantastical peoples, kingdoms and marvels.
Sample Topics
- The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- Marco Polo, Travels
- The Travels of Ibn Battuta
- travel writings of Petrarch
- pilgrimage narratives
Introductory Reading.
- Agapitos, P.A. and L.B. Mortensen, eds, Medieval Narratives Between History and Fiction: From the Centre to the Periphery of Europe, c.1100-1400. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013
- Ohler, N., The Medieval Traveller. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1989
- Tomasch, S. and S. Gilles, eds, Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997