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Travel Literature PT 2

The document discusses the intersection of fiction and travel literature, highlighting examples like Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and Jack Kerouac's works that blend real journeys with fictional narratives. It also notes the rise of travel blogs in the 21st century as a modern form of travel literature, with bloggers sharing their experiences through various social media platforms. Additionally, the systematic study of travel literature has developed into a scholarly field since the mid-1990s, with significant works addressing themes such as escapism, gender, and colonialism.

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Jeremy Smith
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12 views1 page

Travel Literature PT 2

The document discusses the intersection of fiction and travel literature, highlighting examples like Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and Jack Kerouac's works that blend real journeys with fictional narratives. It also notes the rise of travel blogs in the 21st century as a modern form of travel literature, with bloggers sharing their experiences through various social media platforms. Additionally, the systematic study of travel literature has developed into a scholarly field since the mid-1990s, with significant works addressing themes such as escapism, gender, and colonialism.

Uploaded by

Jeremy Smith
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Fiction

Some fictional travel stories are related to 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. Examples of fictional works of travel literature based on actual journeys
are:

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), which has its origin in an actual voyage Conrad
made up the River Congo[56]
Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958) are fictionalized accounts of
his travels across the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s
Travel writer Kira Salak's novel, The White Mary (2008), a contemporary example of a real-life
journey transformed into a work of fiction, which takes place in Papua New Guinea and
the Congo.[57][58][59]

Travel blogs
In the 21st century, travel literature became a genre of social media in the form of travel blogs, with
travel bloggers using outlets like personal blogs, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and travel
websites to convey information about their adventures, and provide advice for navigating particular
countries, or for traveling generally.[60] Travel blogs were among the first instances of blogging,
which began in the mid-1990s.[60]

Notable travel bloggers include Matthew Kepnes, Johnny Ward,[61] and Drew Binsky.[62][63]

Scholarship
The systematic study of travel literature emerged as a field of scholarly inquiry in the mid-1990s,
with its own conferences, organizations, journals, monographs, anthologies, and encyclopedias.
Important, pre-1995 monographs are: Abroad (1980) by Paul Fussell, an exploration of British
interwar travel writing as escapism; Gone Primitive: Modern Intellects, Savage Minds (1990) by
Marianna Torgovnick, an inquiry into the primitivist presentations of foreign cultures; Haunted
Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing (1991) by Dennis Porter, a close
look at the psychological correlatives of travel; Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women's
Travel Writing by Sara Mills, an inquiry into the intersection of gender and colonialism during the
19th century; Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992), Mary Louise Pratt's
influential study of Victorian travel writing's dissemination of a colonial mind-set; and Belated
Travelers (1994), an analysis of colonial anxiety by Ali Behdad.

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