The American Road Narrative

This course examines the American road narrative beginning with Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and extending to Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive (2019). Pairing key literary texts with reviews essays scholarship journalism and other media it considers how the road narrative engages with historical circumstances and with social ethical and political themes. Students have the option to complete a creative final project for example an original road narrative or film adaptation of a novel.