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TRAVEL LITERATURE

Travel literature is literature which records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a foreign place for the sake and 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

History

One of the earliest known records of taking pleasure in travel, of traveling for the sake of travel and writing about it, is Petrarch's 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, traveled 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, 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 Le 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 published Voyages, a foundational text of the travel literature genre.

Other later examples of travel literature include the Grand Tour European nobles would take of Europe to see the art and architecture of old civilizations. One tourism literature pioneer was Robert Louis Stevenson.

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 travelers, 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.

Types of travelogues

Some great travel writers are specialists in the field. The Americans Paul Theroux and William Least Heat-Moon, the Welsh author Jan Morris, and the Englishman Eric Newby, come to mind though Morris is also known as an historian and Theroux as a novelist. These are people who travel and make their livings by writing about it.

There is a point too where travel literature interesects with essay writing as in V. S. Naipaul's "India, A Wounded Civilization", when a trip becomes the occasion for extended observations on a nation and people. Rebecca West's work on Yugoslavia, "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon" is another example.

Travel and nature writing merge in many of the works of Gerald Durrell, Ivan T. Sanderson and Sally Carrighar. These authors are naturalists who write to support their great passion. Both Durrell and Sanderson can be quite funny. Charles Darwin wrote his famous account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the intersection of science, natural history and travel.

Literary travel writing occurs when an author famous in another field travels and writes about his or her experiences. Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hilaire Belloc, Rebecca West, D.H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and John Steinbeck.

We might also include fictional travelogues such as the mythical journey in Homer's Odyssey, or the allegorical journeys of Dante's Divine Comedy, Voltaire's Candide or Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Literary travel writing is also available online. Unlike published works, online travel journals, or travelogues, are often written on the go with immediate same-day updates.

Notable travel literature

See outdoor literature for adventure/exploration/nature literature.

References

  • Jennifer Speake, ed. (2003). Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. 3-volumes. ISBN 1-57958-247-8

See also

External links