Teaching Mary Wollstonecraft's Travelogue of Historical Trauma

Abstract: I teach Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796) an undergraduate English literature course on “Survival Narratives of the Eighteenth Century” at University California, Davis. The aim this is to show how significant perilous voyages were ways which writers eighteenth-century Britain imagined interpreted their world. draws from burst new scholarship rethinking traditional “rise novel” narrative imperial, oceanic, global contexts develops interpretive frameworks for eighteenth century’s changing relationship commerce exploration. travelogue final text syllabus that begins with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) continues Phillis Wheatley’s poetry about ocean Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative Life Equiano (1789). account traveling Scandinavia, written aftermath French Revolution, more concerned survival human species than individual. But reading narratives primes students understand material conditions writing—often taking place under extreme circumstances—shaped being produced century. In essay, describe metacognitive exercise reflected meditation era environmental catastrophe own “travelogues” where they logged into Zoom classroom. With classes online time due COVID-19, many my drew lesson discuss moment crisis shaped skills experiences as writers.