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Lit Trip Library

Due to changes in technology, some Lit Trips are no longer available. Select currently available Google Lit Trips in the GLT Store .

Higher Education Titles


Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

Matthew Hart
Educator Developer Matthew Hart
Vice Principal, Joe Michell K–8 School, Livermore, CA. Matthew Hart has a Master's Degree in English Literature, specialized in 20th Century American and English Literature, and wrote his master's thesis on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Matthew has presented at multiple educational conferences, and was named a Rotary Club Outstanding Educator in 2012.


Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann    (STUDENT CREATED)
A Small Dog's Big Life

"Buddenbrooks, is the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family's bonds and traditions begin to disintegrate. As Mann charts the Buddenbrooks' decline from prosperity to bankruptcy, from moral and psychic soundness to sickly piety, artistic decadence, and madness, he ushers the reader into a world of stunning vitality, pieced together from births and funerals, weddings and divorces, recipes, gossip, and earthy humor." – Goodreads

tobiasBoesEducator Developer Professor Tobias Boes and students
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN. Tobias Boes is an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he specializes in German culture during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and in the history of the novel. The goal of this exercise, and of the class as a whole, was to show that literature can act as a kind of map and has a profound effect on the ways in which a culture imagines its place in the known world. A secondary goal of the Lit Trip assignment was to raise student awareness of intellectual copyright issues; all quotations required proper citation and all images had to be either in the public domain or had to undergo prior copyright clearance.

In Search of Beowulf by Jerome Burg
In Search of Beowulf

Though true that Beowulf is undoubtedly not a true story, there is reason to believe that elements of the story are based upon historical places and events common to the legends of many of our oldest stories.

This Google Lit Trip is based upon the archeological work of Tom Christensen published under the title "Lejere: Beyond the Legend – the archeaological evidence." Christensen's work led to what may have been the model for the descriptions of The Long Hall" in Beowulf. As you explore this Lit Trip, you can virtually travel to the archaeological site, view the locations mentioned, and read about the evidence upon which Christensen builds a rather convincing case.

JeromeBurg
Created by Educator Developer Jerome Burg
Google Lit Trips Founder, Retired High School English Teacher. Jerome Burg spent 38 years as a high-school English teacher. M.A. in Education, specializing in Educational Technology. He is a popular conference and workshop presenter, is both an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher; co-author of Bookmapping: Lit Trips and Beyond. See Developer Bio and GLT Global ED for more information.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work. The novel is a highly autobiographical account of the adolescence and youth of Stephen Dedalus, who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realize that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of the stultifying effects of the religion, politics and essential bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland. – Goodreads

davidHerring
Educator Developer David Herring
University High School, Tucson, AZ. In addition to teaching at University High School, David Herring maintains the Google Earth Education Community website. http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/dherring/ge/googleearth.htm

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson
FleshAndBloodSoCheap

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, first printed in 1682, tells the story of the author's seven weeks and five days spent living with Native Americans. The book is considered a seminal work of American captivity narratives

Educator DeveloperJon Miller
Associate Professor of English, University of Akron, Akron, OH. Jon Miller teaches American literature from the beginnings to about 1870. He also teaches American literary and cultural history. Jon has published extensively on the interpretation of American literature in the context of the history of drinking and temperance reform. He has served as the editor of The Social History of Alcohol Review and the Alcohol and Drugs History Society's Daily Register.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Amy's Travels

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. – Goodreads

Matthew Hart
Educator Developer Matthew Hart
Vice Principal, Joe Michell K–8 School, Livermore, CA Matthew Hart has a Master's Degree in English Literature, specialized in 20th Century American and English Literature, and wrote his master's thesis on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Matthew has presented at multiple educational conferences, and was named a Rotary Club Outstanding Educator in 2012.


The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo    (STUDENT CREATED)

Marco Polo (1254-1329) has achieved an almost archetypal status as a traveller, and his Travels is one of the first great travel books of Western literature, outside the ancient world. The Travels recounts Polo's journey to the eastern court of Kublai Khan, the chieftain of the Mongol empire which covered the Asian continent, but which was almost unknown to Polo's contemporaries. Encompassing a twenty-four year period from 1721, Polo's account details his travels in the service of the empire, from Beijing to northern India and ends with the remarkable story of Polo's return voyage from the Chinese port of Amoy to the Persian Gulf. Alternately factual and fantastic, Polo's prose at once reveals the medieval imagination's limits, and captures the wonder of subsequent travel writers when faced with the unfamiliar, the exotic or the unknown. – Goodreads

tobiasBoesEducator Developer Professor Tobias Boes and students
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN. Tobias Boes is an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he specializes in German culture during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and in the history of the novel. Because of time constraints, only the prologue and first three chapters, which describe Polo's voyage to China, were annotated. We hope to provide annotations for the remaining chapters, dealing with Polo's journeys while he was in the employ of Kublai Khan, in the near future.

Things That Must Not Be Forgotten by Michael David Kwan
Things That Must Not Be Forgotten

"Award-winning memoir that describes the childhood of Kwan, a young boy living in Beijing in the 1930s. Abandoned by his Swiss mother and overwhelmed by his father, Kwan's life is thrown into turmoil when the Japanese invade." – Goodreads

MichaelDavidKwan This unique Lit Trip for Michael David Kwan's memoir, Things That Must Not Be Forgotten was developed by the author's son Nick Kwan. Nick Kwan blends elements of his father's book with his own discoveries about his family as he searched for the world his father grew up in as a child in China.

Nick Kwan
Educator Developer Nick Kwan
HS Technology Coach & Head of Department, Computer Science Teacher & Examiner, The American School of Warsaw in Poland
Nick Kwan is a father, husband, cook and international educator. Born in Vancouver, Canada, he witnessed the city change over the years into the diverse, ethnic mixing pot that it is today. As a teacher of computer science and technology, he has had the privilege of living and working in the greater Vancouver area, Istanbul, Beijing and Warsaw. Exploring the world through his camera lens is a simple passion which he likes to indulge in whenever possible. Nick has been recognised as an Apple Distinguished Educator (Asia class of 2007) and Google Certified Teacher (GTA SWE13) for his work in educational technology. "I believe that Lit Trips provide a unique enhancement and richness through the integration of technology in the reading process. Just like eBooks provide a different reading experience, GLTs take the reader on a deeper, interactive journey."





















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