Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Vagabondage emerges as a totemic concept in European women’s travel writing from 1850, a physical and textual elaboration of gender identity in motion. This book constitutes a full ...
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Vagabondage emerges as a totemic concept in European women’s travel writing from 1850, a physical and textual elaboration of gender identity in motion. This book constitutes a full length study of this paradigm. For travellers including Olympe Audouard, Isabella Bird, Isabelle Eberhardt and Freya Stark, vagabondage is a means of forcing pushing out the physical, geographical and textual parameters by which ‘women’ are defined. This book explores the negotiations of European women travel writers from 1850-1950 within the traditionally male-oriented discourses of colonialism and Orientalism. Moving from historical overview to close textual reading, it traces a complex web of tacit collusion and gleeful defiance. These women improvise access to the highly gendered ‘imaginative geography’ of the Orient. Tactics including cross-dressing, commerciality and the effacement of their male companions are used to carve out a space for their unconventional and often sexually hybrid constructions. Using a composite theoretical basis of the later critical work of Judith Butler and Edward Said, this comparative study of British and French colonial empires and gender norms draws out the nuances in these travellers’ constructions of gender identity. Women travel writers are shown to play an important role in the legacy of sexual experimentation and self-creation in the Orient, traditionally associated with male writers including Gide and Pierre Loti and now ripe for critical re-evaluation. This study demonstrates how these women use lived experiences of restriction and negotiation to elaborate advanced theories of motion and gender construction, presaging the concerns of twenty-first century feminism and post-colonialism.Less
Vagabondage emerges as a totemic concept in European women’s travel writing from 1850, a physical and textual elaboration of gender identity in motion. This book constitutes a full length study of this paradigm. For travellers including Olympe Audouard, Isabella Bird, Isabelle Eberhardt and Freya Stark, vagabondage is a means of forcing pushing out the physical, geographical and textual parameters by which ‘women’ are defined. This book explores the negotiations of European women travel writers from 1850-1950 within the traditionally male-oriented discourses of colonialism and Orientalism. Moving from historical overview to close textual reading, it traces a complex web of tacit collusion and gleeful defiance. These women improvise access to the highly gendered ‘imaginative geography’ of the Orient. Tactics including cross-dressing, commerciality and the effacement of their male companions are used to carve out a space for their unconventional and often sexually hybrid constructions. Using a composite theoretical basis of the later critical work of Judith Butler and Edward Said, this comparative study of British and French colonial empires and gender norms draws out the nuances in these travellers’ constructions of gender identity. Women travel writers are shown to play an important role in the legacy of sexual experimentation and self-creation in the Orient, traditionally associated with male writers including Gide and Pierre Loti and now ripe for critical re-evaluation. This study demonstrates how these women use lived experiences of restriction and negotiation to elaborate advanced theories of motion and gender construction, presaging the concerns of twenty-first century feminism and post-colonialism.
Peter Hulme
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112150
- eISBN:
- 9780191670688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112150.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This book aims to take travel writing seriously as an object of scholarly attention. To that end, it has attempted to bring techniques of literary analysis to travel writing, has researched travel ...
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This book aims to take travel writing seriously as an object of scholarly attention. To that end, it has attempted to bring techniques of literary analysis to travel writing, has researched travel writers whose work has previously been given little attention, and has tried to understand the body of modern travel writing about the Caribs in Dominica. It has given particular weight to the late 19th-century contexts that produced the work of Frederick Ober in the United States and Hesketh Bell in Britain because of their key significance as founders of the modern discourse about the Caribs. However, the book has also chosen to emphasize the local context of the Carib Reserve itself, judging that special place, which cannot be understood in isolation from Dominica as a whole.Less
This book aims to take travel writing seriously as an object of scholarly attention. To that end, it has attempted to bring techniques of literary analysis to travel writing, has researched travel writers whose work has previously been given little attention, and has tried to understand the body of modern travel writing about the Caribs in Dominica. It has given particular weight to the late 19th-century contexts that produced the work of Frederick Ober in the United States and Hesketh Bell in Britain because of their key significance as founders of the modern discourse about the Caribs. However, the book has also chosen to emphasize the local context of the Carib Reserve itself, judging that special place, which cannot be understood in isolation from Dominica as a whole.
Kama Maclean
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195338942
- eISBN:
- 9780199867110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338942.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter presents a historiographical review and critique of textual sources documenting the mela (premodern, colonial Oxford, and contemporary accounts of the mela in a range of languages, but ...
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This chapter presents a historiographical review and critique of textual sources documenting the mela (premodern, colonial Oxford, and contemporary accounts of the mela in a range of languages, but predominantly written by observers, as opposed to participants), in the interests of delineating the discursive nature of power. A discernible discourse of danger emerges, underpinning the administration and management of the mela; it was heavily informed by records of deadly battles between sadhu akharas in 18th century Haridwar and sealed with 19th century experiences with epidemic diseases, unregulated crowds, and what was perceived as esoteric or mysterious Hindu practices. The chapter draws attention to the power and prevalence of such representations and concludes with a consideration of the politics of photographic representation at the 2001 Kumbh Mela, when the High Court of Allahabad enforced a ban on photography at the bathing ghats, limiting the ability of freelance and agency photographers from all over the world to photograph the bathing rituals. It is argued that the representations of the mela, in writing and in photography, have served to historically constrain it, and often, by extension, India, for it was frequently argued that the scale of the crowds attending the Kumbh reflected a microcosm of India, neatly representing a cross‐section of its diverse regional, linguistic, and caste communities.Less
This chapter presents a historiographical review and critique of textual sources documenting the mela (premodern, colonial Oxford, and contemporary accounts of the mela in a range of languages, but predominantly written by observers, as opposed to participants), in the interests of delineating the discursive nature of power. A discernible discourse of danger emerges, underpinning the administration and management of the mela; it was heavily informed by records of deadly battles between sadhu akharas in 18th century Haridwar and sealed with 19th century experiences with epidemic diseases, unregulated crowds, and what was perceived as esoteric or mysterious Hindu practices. The chapter draws attention to the power and prevalence of such representations and concludes with a consideration of the politics of photographic representation at the 2001 Kumbh Mela, when the High Court of Allahabad enforced a ban on photography at the bathing ghats, limiting the ability of freelance and agency photographers from all over the world to photograph the bathing rituals. It is argued that the representations of the mela, in writing and in photography, have served to historically constrain it, and often, by extension, India, for it was frequently argued that the scale of the crowds attending the Kumbh reflected a microcosm of India, neatly representing a cross‐section of its diverse regional, linguistic, and caste communities.
James Buzard
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122760
- eISBN:
- 9780191671531
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122760.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book is a major study of European tourism during the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. The author demonstrates the ways in which the distinction between tourist ...
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This book is a major study of European tourism during the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. The author demonstrates the ways in which the distinction between tourist and traveller has developed and how the circulation of the two terms influenced how nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers on Europe viewed themselves and presented themselves in writing. Drawing upon a wide range of texts from literature, travel writing, guidebooks, periodicals, and business histories, the book shows how a democratizing and institutionalizing tourism gave rise to new formulations about what constitutes ‘authentic’ cultural experience. Authentic culture was represented as being in the secret precincts of the ‘beaten track’ where it could be discovered only by the sensitive true traveller and not the vulgar tourist. Major writers such as Byron, Wordsworth, Frances Trollope, Dickens, Henry James, and Forster are examined in the light of the influential Murray and Baedeker guide books. This elegantly written book draws links with debates in cultural studies concerning the ideology of leisure and concludes that in this period tourism became an exemplary cultural practice appearing to be both popularly accessible and exclusive.Less
This book is a major study of European tourism during the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. The author demonstrates the ways in which the distinction between tourist and traveller has developed and how the circulation of the two terms influenced how nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers on Europe viewed themselves and presented themselves in writing. Drawing upon a wide range of texts from literature, travel writing, guidebooks, periodicals, and business histories, the book shows how a democratizing and institutionalizing tourism gave rise to new formulations about what constitutes ‘authentic’ cultural experience. Authentic culture was represented as being in the secret precincts of the ‘beaten track’ where it could be discovered only by the sensitive true traveller and not the vulgar tourist. Major writers such as Byron, Wordsworth, Frances Trollope, Dickens, Henry James, and Forster are examined in the light of the influential Murray and Baedeker guide books. This elegantly written book draws links with debates in cultural studies concerning the ideology of leisure and concludes that in this period tourism became an exemplary cultural practice appearing to be both popularly accessible and exclusive.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This concluding chapter draws together the main threads of the preceding argument. It then speculates briefly on the extent to which the travel traditions established by Romantic travellers — and in ...
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This concluding chapter draws together the main threads of the preceding argument. It then speculates briefly on the extent to which the travel traditions established by Romantic travellers — and in particular the valorization of misadventure in travel — continue to influence practices and attitudes in modern travel and travel writing.Less
This concluding chapter draws together the main threads of the preceding argument. It then speculates briefly on the extent to which the travel traditions established by Romantic travellers — and in particular the valorization of misadventure in travel — continue to influence practices and attitudes in modern travel and travel writing.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199829705
- eISBN:
- 9780199933341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199829705.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter lays out the proposed theoretical framework for the book. It begins by evaluating the role of travelogues about Europe in Qajar historiography and suggests that a different ...
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This chapter lays out the proposed theoretical framework for the book. It begins by evaluating the role of travelogues about Europe in Qajar historiography and suggests that a different interpretation of these texts can be reached by questioning the assumption that traveling equalled travel writing, that the genre of travelogues remained constant over the century, and that travel provided the primary site of observing and writing about Europe. This means a shift from a vertical reading of texts throughout the nineteenth century to a horizontal one that focuses on connections between travelogues and other texts of their time.Less
This chapter lays out the proposed theoretical framework for the book. It begins by evaluating the role of travelogues about Europe in Qajar historiography and suggests that a different interpretation of these texts can be reached by questioning the assumption that traveling equalled travel writing, that the genre of travelogues remained constant over the century, and that travel provided the primary site of observing and writing about Europe. This means a shift from a vertical reading of texts throughout the nineteenth century to a horizontal one that focuses on connections between travelogues and other texts of their time.
Priya Satia
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331417
- eISBN:
- 9780199868070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331417.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter explains why Britons were particularly drawn to the Ottoman Empire in this period and how intelligence agents' particular cultural motivations disposed them to epistemological ...
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This chapter explains why Britons were particularly drawn to the Ottoman Empire in this period and how intelligence agents' particular cultural motivations disposed them to epistemological experimentation. It describes the agents' central role in cultural production about the region, as famous explorers and authors intimate with Edwardian literary society, with whom they fashioned a new literary cult of the desert, in which the spy novel figured centrally. Many of them had gone to the Middle East looking for literary inspiration, a modernist aesthetic, romantic adventure, and spiritual fulfillment in a time in which social change and modern science had made many Britons anxious about their place in society and the universe. The agents saw their work in the Middle East, particularly during the war, as an opportunity to shape their own lives and Middle Eastern reality in the image of fiction.Less
This chapter explains why Britons were particularly drawn to the Ottoman Empire in this period and how intelligence agents' particular cultural motivations disposed them to epistemological experimentation. It describes the agents' central role in cultural production about the region, as famous explorers and authors intimate with Edwardian literary society, with whom they fashioned a new literary cult of the desert, in which the spy novel figured centrally. Many of them had gone to the Middle East looking for literary inspiration, a modernist aesthetic, romantic adventure, and spiritual fulfillment in a time in which social change and modern science had made many Britons anxious about their place in society and the universe. The agents saw their work in the Middle East, particularly during the war, as an opportunity to shape their own lives and Middle Eastern reality in the image of fiction.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Since the Romantic period, there have been travellers who have especially valorized the discomforts, dangers, misadventures, and disasters that can occur in the course of travel. This introductory ...
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Since the Romantic period, there have been travellers who have especially valorized the discomforts, dangers, misadventures, and disasters that can occur in the course of travel. This introductory chapter outlines this ‘misadventurous’ agenda and suggests ways in which we might interpret this curious attitude to travel: as a mode of anti-tourism that maintains a distinction between the tourist and the proper traveller, as a form of masculine self-fashioning in travel, as a route to authenticity, and so forth. The notion of the travel ‘script’, the narrative we expect to see playing out in the course of our travelling, is introduced, and also the strong link between the characteristically Romantic travel script — that is to say, the script espoused in practice and in writing by figures such as Wordsworth, Byron, Coleridge and Keats — and the various branches of contemporary travel writing in which the sufferings of the traveller are a key point of interest; notably, narratives of shipwreck, captivity, mountaineering, and exploration. These sub-genres of Romantic-era travel writing and the Romantic utilization of them in the fashioning of their own travel personae will form the focus of the rest of the book.Less
Since the Romantic period, there have been travellers who have especially valorized the discomforts, dangers, misadventures, and disasters that can occur in the course of travel. This introductory chapter outlines this ‘misadventurous’ agenda and suggests ways in which we might interpret this curious attitude to travel: as a mode of anti-tourism that maintains a distinction between the tourist and the proper traveller, as a form of masculine self-fashioning in travel, as a route to authenticity, and so forth. The notion of the travel ‘script’, the narrative we expect to see playing out in the course of our travelling, is introduced, and also the strong link between the characteristically Romantic travel script — that is to say, the script espoused in practice and in writing by figures such as Wordsworth, Byron, Coleridge and Keats — and the various branches of contemporary travel writing in which the sufferings of the traveller are a key point of interest; notably, narratives of shipwreck, captivity, mountaineering, and exploration. These sub-genres of Romantic-era travel writing and the Romantic utilization of them in the fashioning of their own travel personae will form the focus of the rest of the book.
Charles Forsdick
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199258291
- eISBN:
- 9780191698538
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258291.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter discusses the practical ways that current critical considerations coincide with and yet diverge from both the French publishing phenomenon known as the ‘le travel writing’ and the ...
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This chapter discusses the practical ways that current critical considerations coincide with and yet diverge from both the French publishing phenomenon known as the ‘le travel writing’ and the movement that underpins this, which is called the Pour une littérature voyageuse. Some of the critical considerations identified in this chapter are translation and interculturality. A critique of the Pour une littérature voyageuse is included in this chapter. Domestic journeys as an alternative itinerary and Maspero's self-conscious travel text are discussed as well.Less
This chapter discusses the practical ways that current critical considerations coincide with and yet diverge from both the French publishing phenomenon known as the ‘le travel writing’ and the movement that underpins this, which is called the Pour une littérature voyageuse. Some of the critical considerations identified in this chapter are translation and interculturality. A critique of the Pour une littérature voyageuse is included in this chapter. Domestic journeys as an alternative itinerary and Maspero's self-conscious travel text are discussed as well.
Timothy Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195300093
- eISBN:
- 9780199868636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300093.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
In this early‐seventeenth‐century collection of travel writings we can see tensions between Religion as Christian Truth on the one hand, and the beginnings of a generic concept of religions matched ...
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In this early‐seventeenth‐century collection of travel writings we can see tensions between Religion as Christian Truth on the one hand, and the beginnings of a generic concept of religions matched by an ambiguously modern secular ethnographic style on the other. This work of “pilgrimage” reflects the competition for trade and the processes of colonization, alongside the development of new ways of classifying the world and its contents. Purchas frames his whole work in Biblical terms, drawing explicitly on the expulsion of Adam and Eve, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel as explanatory concepts for the bewildering variety of newly discovered forms of human life. Yet an ironic and quite frequent application of “religions” to “superstitions” at times suggests an early if ambiguous generic modern usage, as if he is adopting a secular high ground. The world is most certainly “profane” in the sense of “fallen”; yet at the same time Purchas's concern with new knowledge of ships, maps, compasses, geography, as well as customs and superstitions, frequently suggests the early beginnings of something approaching modern nonreligious secularity.Less
In this early‐seventeenth‐century collection of travel writings we can see tensions between Religion as Christian Truth on the one hand, and the beginnings of a generic concept of religions matched by an ambiguously modern secular ethnographic style on the other. This work of “pilgrimage” reflects the competition for trade and the processes of colonization, alongside the development of new ways of classifying the world and its contents. Purchas frames his whole work in Biblical terms, drawing explicitly on the expulsion of Adam and Eve, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel as explanatory concepts for the bewildering variety of newly discovered forms of human life. Yet an ironic and quite frequent application of “religions” to “superstitions” at times suggests an early if ambiguous generic modern usage, as if he is adopting a secular high ground. The world is most certainly “profane” in the sense of “fallen”; yet at the same time Purchas's concern with new knowledge of ships, maps, compasses, geography, as well as customs and superstitions, frequently suggests the early beginnings of something approaching modern nonreligious secularity.
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central ...
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This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.Less
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.
Constanze Güthenke
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231850
- eISBN:
- 9780191716188
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231850.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The second chapter asks how, through aesthetic discourse, Greek reality (material, geographical, climatic) signified as a foil for individual and national reflection. It first examines examples of ...
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The second chapter asks how, through aesthetic discourse, Greek reality (material, geographical, climatic) signified as a foil for individual and national reflection. It first examines examples of real and fictive travel-writings in (European) circulation around 1800, including some rare German accounts of Greece by, for example, Bartholdy and von Halem, which have so far not received any scholarly attention. This is followed by an analysis of Hölderlin's novel Hyperion, or the Greek Hermit (1797/1799). Often neglected in favour of his poetry, Hölderlin's poetic novel is a central text to introduce the landscape of contemporary Greece, as an ambivalent mediator between antiquity and modernity, into the act of writing on German national identity.Less
The second chapter asks how, through aesthetic discourse, Greek reality (material, geographical, climatic) signified as a foil for individual and national reflection. It first examines examples of real and fictive travel-writings in (European) circulation around 1800, including some rare German accounts of Greece by, for example, Bartholdy and von Halem, which have so far not received any scholarly attention. This is followed by an analysis of Hölderlin's novel Hyperion, or the Greek Hermit (1797/1799). Often neglected in favour of his poetry, Hölderlin's poetic novel is a central text to introduce the landscape of contemporary Greece, as an ambivalent mediator between antiquity and modernity, into the act of writing on German national identity.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This book explores the romance that can attach to the notion of suffering in travel, and the importance of the persona of ‘suffering traveller’ in the Romantic self-fashioning of figures, such as ...
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This book explores the romance that can attach to the notion of suffering in travel, and the importance of the persona of ‘suffering traveller’ in the Romantic self-fashioning of figures, such as Wordsworth and Byron. It considers how the Romantics sought to differentiate themselves from other contemporary tourists by following alternative models and alternative travel ‘scripts’ in both their travel and their travel writing. Rejecting more conventional roles, such as those of the picturesque tourist and the Grand Tourist, the Romantic traveller's anti-tourism leads to an emphasis on authenticity, adventure, and misadventure in the travel experience. Prioritizing such experiences, Romantic travellers often drew their models and their travel ‘scripts’ from sub-genres of contemporary travel writing, such as the shipwreck narrative, the exploration narrative, the captivity narrative, and the mountaineering narrative. This study accordingly considers the diverse reasons (touching variously upon some of the major philosophical, theological, and political issues of the day) why Romantic travellers and writers were so drawn to this literature of misadventure. It then treats Wordsworth and Byron as especially influential examples of this tendency in Romanticism. It shows them to be figures who often sought — not only in writing but also in action, in the course of their own travelling — to re-enact such misadventures, and to script both their travels and their personae as travellers according to scenes and situations found in these ‘misadventurous’ branches of travel writing.Less
This book explores the romance that can attach to the notion of suffering in travel, and the importance of the persona of ‘suffering traveller’ in the Romantic self-fashioning of figures, such as Wordsworth and Byron. It considers how the Romantics sought to differentiate themselves from other contemporary tourists by following alternative models and alternative travel ‘scripts’ in both their travel and their travel writing. Rejecting more conventional roles, such as those of the picturesque tourist and the Grand Tourist, the Romantic traveller's anti-tourism leads to an emphasis on authenticity, adventure, and misadventure in the travel experience. Prioritizing such experiences, Romantic travellers often drew their models and their travel ‘scripts’ from sub-genres of contemporary travel writing, such as the shipwreck narrative, the exploration narrative, the captivity narrative, and the mountaineering narrative. This study accordingly considers the diverse reasons (touching variously upon some of the major philosophical, theological, and political issues of the day) why Romantic travellers and writers were so drawn to this literature of misadventure. It then treats Wordsworth and Byron as especially influential examples of this tendency in Romanticism. It shows them to be figures who often sought — not only in writing but also in action, in the course of their own travelling — to re-enact such misadventures, and to script both their travels and their personae as travellers according to scenes and situations found in these ‘misadventurous’ branches of travel writing.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter situates Romantic acts of travel in their larger context, which is the upsurge of tourism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The various modes of tourism that emerge in this ...
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This chapter situates Romantic acts of travel in their larger context, which is the upsurge of tourism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The various modes of tourism that emerge in this period are discussed, as well as its corollary: a growing ethos of anti-tourism amongst some travellers. The chapter then goes on to discuss the forms of contemporary tourism that most irritated or unsettled the Romantic imagination, notably the Grand Tour, the picturesque tour, and the rise in the number of women travellers. It also explores some of the practices by which Romantic travellers defined themselves against these tourists, such as pedestrianism.Less
This chapter situates Romantic acts of travel in their larger context, which is the upsurge of tourism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The various modes of tourism that emerge in this period are discussed, as well as its corollary: a growing ethos of anti-tourism amongst some travellers. The chapter then goes on to discuss the forms of contemporary tourism that most irritated or unsettled the Romantic imagination, notably the Grand Tour, the picturesque tour, and the rise in the number of women travellers. It also explores some of the practices by which Romantic travellers defined themselves against these tourists, such as pedestrianism.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter explores Wordsworth's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. ...
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This chapter explores Wordsworth's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. From this material, and especially from the traditions of spiritual autobiography and Providentialism in this material, it is suggested that Wordsworth absorbed deeply a sense of travel as properly a form of quasi-religious pilgrimage, and of misadventure as a route to spiritual discovery and renovation. The first section of the chapter discusses Wordsworthian misadventure in relation to Wordsworth's spiritual and creative anxieties and aspirations; this section focuses chiefly on The Prelude. The second section explores the public dimension to Wordsworth's adoption of the misadventurer, focusing on the ways in which Wordsworth harnesses misadventure to a nationalist and imperialist ethos: The Excursion is the principal text discussed here.Less
This chapter explores Wordsworth's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. From this material, and especially from the traditions of spiritual autobiography and Providentialism in this material, it is suggested that Wordsworth absorbed deeply a sense of travel as properly a form of quasi-religious pilgrimage, and of misadventure as a route to spiritual discovery and renovation. The first section of the chapter discusses Wordsworthian misadventure in relation to Wordsworth's spiritual and creative anxieties and aspirations; this section focuses chiefly on The Prelude. The second section explores the public dimension to Wordsworth's adoption of the misadventurer, focusing on the ways in which Wordsworth harnesses misadventure to a nationalist and imperialist ethos: The Excursion is the principal text discussed here.
John W. Griffith
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183006
- eISBN:
- 9780191673931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183006.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This chapter contextualizes Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in relation to both Victorian and contemporary anthropology and travel writing. Critics have argued that Conrad understood little of the Congo ...
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This chapter contextualizes Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in relation to both Victorian and contemporary anthropology and travel writing. Critics have argued that Conrad understood little of the Congo to which he travelled; however, we must question to what extent a clear understanding would have been possible. If an objective understanding of a foreign culture is virtually impossible, by what standards of transcultural identification or cultural relativism are we judging Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? We must be careful neither to overemphasize nor underrate the problem of bridging cultural divides. This problem is even more crucial to the argument in that Conrad’s work is often seen to be at the centre of this dilemma in the modernist Weltanschauung.Less
This chapter contextualizes Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in relation to both Victorian and contemporary anthropology and travel writing. Critics have argued that Conrad understood little of the Congo to which he travelled; however, we must question to what extent a clear understanding would have been possible. If an objective understanding of a foreign culture is virtually impossible, by what standards of transcultural identification or cultural relativism are we judging Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? We must be careful neither to overemphasize nor underrate the problem of bridging cultural divides. This problem is even more crucial to the argument in that Conrad’s work is often seen to be at the centre of this dilemma in the modernist Weltanschauung.
Charles Forsdick
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199258291
- eISBN:
- 9780191698538
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199258291.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter discusses several French-language travel texts that were published primarily from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. A detailed analysis of these texts is provided, and is divided into ...
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This chapter discusses several French-language travel texts that were published primarily from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. A detailed analysis of these texts is provided, and is divided into two parts. One term that is continuously used in the analysis is ‘rubbish’, which is defined as the debris that is discarded by previous travellers or inhabitants of a particular place. In the first part of the analysis, focus is placed on rubbish to consider a more general privileging and exploration of fragmentation in post-war travel writing. The second part of the analysis develops these observations in a specific study of fragmentation, which also includes the concept of rubbish.Less
This chapter discusses several French-language travel texts that were published primarily from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. A detailed analysis of these texts is provided, and is divided into two parts. One term that is continuously used in the analysis is ‘rubbish’, which is defined as the debris that is discarded by previous travellers or inhabitants of a particular place. In the first part of the analysis, focus is placed on rubbish to consider a more general privileging and exploration of fragmentation in post-war travel writing. The second part of the analysis develops these observations in a specific study of fragmentation, which also includes the concept of rubbish.
Andrew Hadfield
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199233656
- eISBN:
- 9780191696626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233656.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter argues that one of the manifold uses of the relatively new form of prose fiction was as a vehicle to explore contemporary political problems, invariably setting the individual fiction in ...
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This chapter argues that one of the manifold uses of the relatively new form of prose fiction was as a vehicle to explore contemporary political problems, invariably setting the individual fiction in question in a distant land or a distant time. Sometimes this self-reflection is not sustained throughout a whole text, but exists as one of a number of functions of the writing, whether explicitly articulated or not. It also examines why writers of prose fiction dealt with political subjects, and why they often set their fictions in foreign settings. At times the motive undoubtedly was that of disguising potentially subversive material which could not be introduced into the public sphere directly, making the fiction a coded allegory—such is the case with Robert Greene's Givydonius. The Carde of Fancie (1584) and, in a slightly different manner, Mary Wroth's Urania (1621)—at others, the relationship between vehicle and message was reversed, the story affording the author/translator the chance to reflect on domestic politics. Elsewhere, authors tried to establish the novel as a more overt means of political reflection and satire: John Barclay's Argenis (1621; 1624) is the most obvious example. All three types owe much to the example of Thomas More's Utopia (1516; 1551), and that work's use of travel writing, set in Europe or the Americas, to combine political reflection and fiction. Through the selection of a series of pertinent examples rather than the problematic reconstruction of a sub-genre or ‘line’ within English fiction, the chapter shows how authors from the reign of Edward VI to that of James I performed literary experiments similar to More's.Less
This chapter argues that one of the manifold uses of the relatively new form of prose fiction was as a vehicle to explore contemporary political problems, invariably setting the individual fiction in question in a distant land or a distant time. Sometimes this self-reflection is not sustained throughout a whole text, but exists as one of a number of functions of the writing, whether explicitly articulated or not. It also examines why writers of prose fiction dealt with political subjects, and why they often set their fictions in foreign settings. At times the motive undoubtedly was that of disguising potentially subversive material which could not be introduced into the public sphere directly, making the fiction a coded allegory—such is the case with Robert Greene's Givydonius. The Carde of Fancie (1584) and, in a slightly different manner, Mary Wroth's Urania (1621)—at others, the relationship between vehicle and message was reversed, the story affording the author/translator the chance to reflect on domestic politics. Elsewhere, authors tried to establish the novel as a more overt means of political reflection and satire: John Barclay's Argenis (1621; 1624) is the most obvious example. All three types owe much to the example of Thomas More's Utopia (1516; 1551), and that work's use of travel writing, set in Europe or the Americas, to combine political reflection and fiction. Through the selection of a series of pertinent examples rather than the problematic reconstruction of a sub-genre or ‘line’ within English fiction, the chapter shows how authors from the reign of Edward VI to that of James I performed literary experiments similar to More's.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter considers another type of traveller and of travel writing that often inspired the Romantic espousal of misadventure in the act of travel. The late 18th century witnessed the emergence of ...
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This chapter considers another type of traveller and of travel writing that often inspired the Romantic espousal of misadventure in the act of travel. The late 18th century witnessed the emergence of the explorer, in the modern sense of this term, and saw exploration narratives achieving astonishing popularity amongst the reading public. The chapter begins by surveying these developments, then moves on to consider in more detail two explorers especially famous for their sufferings, James Bruce and Mungo Park. Finally, the chapter considers the complex, ambiguous resonance of Bruce and Park for the Romantic imagination, whilst also speculating on the extent to which Romanticism's veneration specifically of the suffering explorer introduced a cult of martyrdom into the British exploratory tradition.Less
This chapter considers another type of traveller and of travel writing that often inspired the Romantic espousal of misadventure in the act of travel. The late 18th century witnessed the emergence of the explorer, in the modern sense of this term, and saw exploration narratives achieving astonishing popularity amongst the reading public. The chapter begins by surveying these developments, then moves on to consider in more detail two explorers especially famous for their sufferings, James Bruce and Mungo Park. Finally, the chapter considers the complex, ambiguous resonance of Bruce and Park for the Romantic imagination, whilst also speculating on the extent to which Romanticism's veneration specifically of the suffering explorer introduced a cult of martyrdom into the British exploratory tradition.
Carl Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259984
- eISBN:
- 9780191717413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259984.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter explores Byron's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. It ...
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This chapter explores Byron's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. It shows how Byron offered a significantly different inflection of the misadventurer persona to that fashioned by Wordsworth. A discussion of the persona fashioned in Childe Harold suggests that for Byron, misadventure was valued in sensationalist terms, as a broadening of experience, rather than as a route to spiritual revelation. The corollary to this was a Byronic scepticism as to the Providentialist assumptions and conventions often apparent in Wordsworth's scripting of travel and misadventure. This scepticism is apparent in Byron's notorious rendering of a shipwreck in Don Juan, which is the subject of the second section of the chapter. The final section explores the politically transgressive aspects of Byron's stance as misadventurer.Less
This chapter explores Byron's indebtedness both to the literature of shipwreck and maritime misadventure outlined in Chapters 2 and 3, and to the literature of exploration outlined in Chapter 5. It shows how Byron offered a significantly different inflection of the misadventurer persona to that fashioned by Wordsworth. A discussion of the persona fashioned in Childe Harold suggests that for Byron, misadventure was valued in sensationalist terms, as a broadening of experience, rather than as a route to spiritual revelation. The corollary to this was a Byronic scepticism as to the Providentialist assumptions and conventions often apparent in Wordsworth's scripting of travel and misadventure. This scepticism is apparent in Byron's notorious rendering of a shipwreck in Don Juan, which is the subject of the second section of the chapter. The final section explores the politically transgressive aspects of Byron's stance as misadventurer.
