Literary and non-fiction narratives recounting sea voyages offer a separate and confined space, a heterotopia, where cultural imagination and anxieties are projected, explored and sometimes transformed. Aboard ships, authors and readers escape bourgeois society and domestic pressures, come of age, explore communal utopian dreams, connect with wild spaces, or recreate social conflict on a small stage.

In this program we will read and view a wide variety of narratives about voyages at sea. Most of our sources will be literary: fiction, poetry, and theater, but we will consider the non-fiction narrative as well. We will study classic texts by those who have shipped out (short works by Melville and Conrad for example) and more contemporary works by regional authors. We will view film portrayals of the sea voyage and maritime work.

In week three we will expand our sense of voyaging with four days aboard a tall ship in the Salish Sea.

Students will read and write thoughtfully about what they experience and discover. We will create theatrical readings and other presentations related to the program themes. Upper-division students will be expected to complete a larger project and all students will find exceptional support and connection in their work as members of a learning community.