Travel literature
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Travel literature is travel writing considered to have value as literature. Travel literature
typically records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a
foreign place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a
travelogue or itinerary.
To be called literature the work must have a coherent narrative, or insights and value,
beyond a mere logging of dates and events, such as diary or ship's log. Literature that
recounts adventure, exploration and conquest is often grouped under travel literature, but
it also has its own genre outdoor literature; these genres will often overlap with no
definite boundaries. This article focuses on literature that is more akin to tourism.
Contents
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1 History
2 Travel guides
3 Types of travelogues
4 Notable travel writers and travel literature
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
[edit] History
One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of travelling for the sake of
travel and writing about it, is Petrarch's (1304–1374) ascent of Mount Ventoux in 1336.
He states that he went to the mountaintop for the pleasure of seeing the top of the famous
height. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas ("a cold
lack of curiosity"). He then wrote about his climb, making allegorical comparisons
between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life.
Michault Taillement, a poet for the Duke of Burgundy, travelled through the Jura
Mountains in 1430 and left us with his personal reflections, his horrified reaction to the
sheer rock faces, and the terrifying thunderous cascades of mountain streams. Antoine de
la Sale (c. 1388–c. 1462), author of Petit Jehan de Saintre, climbed to the crater of a
volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407, leaving us with his impressions. "Councils of mad
youth" were his stated reasons for going. In the mid 15th century, Gilles le Bouvier, in his
Livre de la description des pays, gave us the best reason to travel and write:
Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure,
as I have done in times past, in seeing the world and things therein, and also
because many wish to know without going there, and others wish to see, go, and
travel, I have begun this little book.
In 1589, Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616) published Voyages, a foundational text of the
travel literature genre.
Other later examples of travel literature include accounts of the Grand Tour. Aristocrats,
clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art and
architecture of its past. One tourism literature pioneer was Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850–1894).
Travel literature also became popular during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) of medieval
China.[1] The genre was called 'travel record literature' (youji wenxue), and was often
written in narrative, prose, essay, and diary style.[2] Travel literature authors such as Fan
Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641) incorporated a wealth of geographical
and topographical information into their writing, while the 'daytrip essay' Record of Stone
Bell Mountain by the noted poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101) presented a
philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose.[3]
In the 18th century, travel literature was commonly known as the book of travels, which
mainly consisted of maritime diaries.[4] In 18th century England, almost every famous
writer worked in the travel literature form.[5] Captain James Cook's diaries (1784) were
the equivalent of today's best sellers.
[edit] Travel guides
Main article: Guide book
Travel literature is not to be confused with travel guides, usually a series put out by a
publisher, each dealing with a particular country, city or region. These are useful for
travellers, as they provide a wealth of information on hotels, restaurants, major sights,
travel tips etc. The writers are often specialists who travel and write these books for a
living.
[edit] Types of travelogues
Some travel writers are people who travel and make their livings by writing about it. The
Americans William Least Heat-Moon (b. 1940) and Paul Theroux (b. 1941), the Welsh
author Jan Morris (b. 1926), and the Englishman Eric Newby (1919–2006), come to
mind, although Morris is also known as an historian and Theroux as a novelist.
There is a point, too, in which travel literature intersects with essay writing, as in V. S.
Naipaul's India: A Wounded Civilization (1977), where a trip becomes the occasion for
extended observations on a nation and people. Rebecca West's (1892–1983) work on
Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) is another example.
Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works of Sally Carrighar (1895–1985),
Ivan T. Sanderson (1911–1973), and Gerald Durrell (1925–1995). These authors are
naturalists who write to support their great passion. Both Durrell and Sanderson can be
quite funny. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) wrote his famous account of the journey of
HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history and travel.
Literary travel writing also occurs when an author, famous in another field, travels and
writes about his or her experiences. Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson (1709–
1784), Charles Dickens (1812–1870), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Hilaire
Belloc (1870–1953), D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930), Rebecca West (1892–1983), John
Steinbeck (1902–1968), and Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966).
Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or it may involve travel
to different regions within the same country. Accounts of spaceflight may also be
considered as travel literature.
Fictional travelogues make up a large proportion of travel literature. Although it may be
desirable in some contexts to distinguish fictional from non-fictional works, such
distinctions have proved notoriously difficult to make in practice, as in the famous
instance of the travel writings of Marco Polo or John Mandeville. Many "fictional" works
of travel literature are based on factual journeys – Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness),
presumably Homer's Odyssey (c. 8th cent. BCE) – while other works, though based on
imaginary and even highly fantastic journeys – Dante's Divine Comedy (1321), Jonathan
Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), or Voltaire's Candide (1759), Samuel Johnson's
Rasselas (1759) –