Around the Worldin Modern Travel Narratives

D.R RansdellSpring 2011

Why travel?

• Obvious answers:

• Work• We can (thanks, modern transport!)• The mountain is there• Curiosity

Looking for love, obviously.Orvieto 2010

Venice 2009Looking for……?????

• 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?

• To record• To understand• To share• To celebrate• To point out world problems• To work out personal problems

Forms

• journal, diary• shaped narrative• memoir (in retrospect)• Essay

• Note: time frame• Note: attention to planning

Why read other people’s?

• 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

• Travel story (some essays)• Mostly factual• Autobiographical *• Use of literary (fictional) strategies• Analysis and reflection• Arrangement

Worthwhile travel narrative?

• 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

• 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

• Access to new worlds• Teaches us something significant• Helps us compare notes• Inspires us to investigate • Inspires us to travel

Problems!

• Subjective• Male-dominated• $$$$• Lots of travel accounts are self-aggrandizing• You don’t always “get it” until later (Gray in

Kowaleski)

Writing the “Other”

• 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