The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing / Edition 1

by Carl Thompson

Overview

As many places around the world confront issues of globalization, migration and postcoloniality, travel writing has become a serious genre of study, reflecting some of the greatest concerns of our time. Encompassing forms as diverse as field journals, investigative reports, guidebooks, memoirs, comic sketches and lyrical reveries, travel writing is now a crucial focus for discussion across many subjects within the humanities and social sciences.

An ideal starting point for beginners, but also offering new perspectives for those familiar with the field, The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing examines:

• Key debates within the field, including postcolonial studies, gender, sexuality and visual culture

• Historical and cultural contexts, tracing the evolution of travel writing across time and over cultures

• Different styles, modes and themes of travel writing, from pilgrimage to tourism

• Imagined geographies, and the relationship between travel writing and the social, ideological and occasionally fictional constructs through which we view the different regions of the world.

Covering all of the major topics and debates, this is an essential overview of the field, which will also encourage new and exciting directions for study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367365295
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Series:	Routledge Literature Companions
Pages:	506
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carl Thompson is a reader in English Literature at the University of Surrey, UK.

Table of Contents

Part 1. Key Debates and Critical Approaches

1. Truth, Lies and Travel Writing, Daniel Carey

2. Inner Journeys: Travel Writing as Life Writing, Simon Cooke

3. Travel Writing and Postcolonial Studies, Claire Lindsay

4. Travel Writing and Gender, Dúnlaith Bird

5. Travel Writing and Sexuality: Queering the Genre, Churnjeet Mahn

6. Travel Writing and Ethics, Corinne Fowler

7. Travel and the Body: Corporeality, Speed and Technology, Charles Forsdick

8. Travel Writing and Visual Culture, Margaret Topping

9. Travel Writing: Reception and Readership, Robin Jarvis

Part 2. Historical Overviews

10. Travel Writing in the Ancient Mediterranean, William Hutton

11. Chinese Travel Writing, James M. Hargett

12. Indian Travel Writing, Shobhana Bhattacharji

13. Arabic Travel Writing, to 1916, Nabil Matar

14. European Travel Writing in the Middle Ages, Anthony Bale

15. Western Travel Writing, 1450-1750, Matthew Day

16. Western Travel Writing, 1750-1950, Barbara Korte

17. African Travel Writing, Aedín Ní Loingsigh

18. Travel Writing Now, 1950 to the Present Day, Carl Thompson

Part 3. Styles, Modes, Themes

19. Pilgrims, Laura Nenzi

20. Discoverers and Explorers, Paul Smethurst

21. Travellers and Tourists, Zoë Kinsley

22. Picturesque Travel: The Aesthetics and Politics of Landscape, Elizabeth A. Bohls

23. Guidebooks, Scott Laderman

24. The Romantic Literary Travel Book, C.W. Thompson

25. Modernist Travel Writing, David Farley

26. Postmodernizing Travel Writing, Manfred Pfister

27. Travel Blogs, Kate Douglas and Kylie Cardell

28. Dark Tourism, Justin D. Edwards

29. Gay Travel Writing: An Unstable Category? Gregory Woods

Part 4 Imagined Geographies

30. Ultima Thule / The North, Graham Huggan

31. Europe, Wendy Bracewell

32. North America / USA, Susan L. Roberson

33. Latin America, Jennifer Hayward

34. The Middle East, Eva Johanna Holmberg

35. India / South Asia, Tabish Khair

36. China, Julia Kuehn

37. Australia, Richard White and Justine Greenwood

38. Sub-Saharan Africa, Laura E. Franey

39. The Polar Regions, Janice Cavell

40. Deserts, Rune Graulund

41. Mountains, Simon Bainbridge

42. The Sea, Steve Mentz

Editorial Reviews

"Readers of this volume will be transported away from a cosy middle-class voyeuristic observation of travel into a serious new world, which offers new perspectives and insights into travel writing. This is a welcome addition to a respected series of volumes, which aim to throw new light on familiar topics. Having approached this volume with the feeling that I was entering familiar territory, I soon realised that the journey had only just begun. With its excellent bibliographies and wealth of references, the way is well signposted."

- Diana Dixon, Freelance reviewer and Editor Local Studies Librarian, Oakham, UK

From the Publisher