Undergraduate - UnitATS3443 - On the road: Travel and representation

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Literary Studies
Offered	Caulfield First semester 2015 (Day) Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Professor Robin Gerster

Synopsis

Cultural practices of travel and the ways these are represented in travel writing and related modes of communication form one of the most compelling fields of contemporary critical inquiry. This unit is designed to place this contemporary engagement within an historical, theoretical and practical perspective. It examines travel practices, attitudes and ideologies in a range of texts, including the popular travel book and the tourist guidebook, fiction, film and journalism. Its scope ranges from ancient pilgrimages through imaginary voyages, utopian fantasies, New World traveller's tales and the imperial quest, to the diverse branches of tourism today, including sex tourism and cyber travel.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will have:

a critical sense of the development of the broad field of travel and representation, with knowledge of the diversity of modes and discourses it encompasses
knowledge of the relationship between travel and ideology, especially in specific historical, political and gendered contexts
an informed understanding of contemporary critical and theoretical approaches to travel
critical perspectives on the production and consumption of travel writing and film
a clear historical sense of the changing practices of travel and tourism.

Students enrolled at a third-year level will be expected to demonstrate a greater mastery of all of the above than those enrolled at a second-year level.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 60%
Exam: 40%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Robin Gerster

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Communications
Literary studies

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units.

Prohibitions

ATS2433, ATS2507/ATS3507