“Roots” and “Routes” - CSISS · “Roots” and “Routes” First Year Seminar University of Redlands Fall 2007 “Only thoughts reached while walking have value.” Nietzsche.

“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”