“Roots” and “Routes”
First Year Seminar
University of Redlands
Fall 2007
“Only thoughts reached while walking have value.”
Nietzsche
Course Advertisement • Some have proposed pilgrimage as the image that best
reflects the identity formation of both individuals and communities.
• In this course we will investigate the accounts of pilgrims, travelers, and traders, using ancient and modern narratives to explore ‘travel’ as a literary genre.
• The networks of cultural, economic and intellectual exchange we encounter will in turn serve as a guide for framing and analyzing the formative elements and events in our own stories of ‘roots’ and ‘routes.’
• Travel to local sites will add an experiential dimension to our intellectual investigations.
• If you are at heart, a pilgrim, a wanderer, curious about your place in the world, do join us on this journey.
Governing Questions• Where did you come from? • Where are you going? • How do the places you’ve been dictate the places you will
go? • How might the places you go re-shape your
understanding of the places you’ve been? • Are there routes that continually beckon? • Are there roots that keep you firmly fixed? • Is it possible to simultaneously explore new terrain and
yet remain grounded? • Is it only in remaining grounded that one is, in fact free to
explore new terrain? • How does one explore without losing one’s bearings? • What is the paradox that connects our ‘roots’ to our
‘routes’?
Where did you come from?The Redlands Road
Reading: A Field Guide to Getting LostWriting: Begin course travelogue/blogVisualizing: Begin annotated map of familial/personal “roots” and “routes”Experiential: Orientation to campus and community
Pilgrimage: Road to the Blue North
Reading: • “Pilgrimage” in Wanderlust: A History of Walking• Basho, Road to the InteriorWriting/Visualizing: • Basho mapExperiential: • Pacific Crest Trail/Zen Mountain Center
Travel: The “Mother Road”Reading: •Grapes of Wrath•On the RoadWriting/Visualizing: • Route 66 MapExperiential: • Route 66 Rendezvous, San Bernardino
Trade: The Silk RoadReading: •Marco Polo•Chuang Zang: Buddhist Monk on the Silk RoadWriting/Visualizing: • Silk Road MapExperiential: • Wilshire Blvd, LA
Where did you come from?Where are you going?
Writing: • Final Travelogue/blogVisualizing: • Annotated/Integrated map of past and projected “roots” and “routes”