Around the World
in Modern Travel Narratives
D.R Ransdell
Spring 2011
Why travel?
• Obvious answers:
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Work
We can (thanks, modern transport!)
The mountain is there
Curiosity
Looking for love, obviously.
Orvieto 2010
Venice 2009
Looking for……?????
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Cognitive benefit
Intellectual conquest
To lose our bearings (Gray in Kowalewski)
Is it in our nature?
*
Ransdells, Equator,
1972
How do you know
you’re a traveler?
You can’t stop!
Why write about our travels?
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To record
To understand
To share
To celebrate
To point out world problems
To work out personal problems
Forms
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journal, diary
shaped narrative
memoir (in retrospect)
Essay
• Note: time frame
• Note: attention to planning
Why read other people’s?
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Learn about places you never heard of
Learn about places you want to travel to
Learn about places you can’t travel to
All gain, no pain!
What is a travel narrative?
Class definition
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Travel story (some essays)
Mostly factual
Autobiographical *
Use of literary (fictional) strategies
Analysis and reflection
Arrangement
Worthwhile travel narrative?
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Definable project
Blend of observation and memory*
Credible author
(usually, lot of time spent in target culture)*
Ethical Author
• Tries diligently to understand target culture*
• Tries diligently to understand own culture in
terms of new understanding
• Narrative is designed for the audience’s
understanding, not the author’s
• Traveller, not a tourist*
Likeable Author
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You want to journey along with them
Friendly tone
Not offensive or showing off
Use of humor, esp. at own mistakes
Sense of adventure or curiosity
Overcomes all obstacles
Avoids whining
Effect on Reader
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Access to new worlds
Teaches us something significant
Helps us compare notes
Inspires us to investigate
Inspires us to travel
Problems!
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Subjective
Male-dominated
$$$$
Lots of travel accounts are self-aggrandizing
You don’t always “get it” until later (Gray in
Kowaleski)
Writing the “Other”
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Can we really understand another culture?
Shakespeare (Petrucchio and Kate)
Edward Said’s Orientalism, 1978
“The Orient was almost a European invention,
and had been since antiquity a place of
romance, exotic beings, haunting memories
and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” 1*
What to do?
• Proceed, but keep in mind inherent problems
of projection
• Try our best to achieve an “honest”
understanding
• Pico Iyer