Writes of Passage: Reading Travel Writing

by Duncan,James; Duncan,James

• ISBN13: 9780415160131
• ISBN10: 0415160138
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-12-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Edward Said's oft cited claim that Orientalists past and present have spun imaginary geographies where they sought ground truth, has launched a plethora of studies of fictive geographies. Representations often reveal more about the culture of the writer than that of the people and places written about. Yet the study of imaginary geographies has raised many questions about Western writers' abilities to provide representations of foreign places. Writes of Passageexplores the interplay between a system of "othering" which travelers bring to a place, and the "real" geographical difference they discover upon arrival. Exposing the tensions between the imaginary and real, the contributors focus primarily upon travelers from the 18th and 19th Centuries to pin down the imaginary within the context of imperial power. With essays covering the regions of Africa, South Asia, and Europe, this book presents a unique historical exploration of issues of place, space and landscape and contemporary studies ontravel writing and migration.Writes of Passagerepresents a valuable addition to the burgeoning literature on travel writing.

Author Biography

Alison Blunt, Department of Geography, University of Southampton Michael Brown, Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle James Duncan, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Derek Gregory, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia Laurie Hovell McMillin, Expository Writing Program, Oberlin College Robert Shannan Peckham, St Catherine's College, University of Cambridge Richard Phillips, Department of Geography, Institute of Earth Studies, University of Wales Joanne P. Sharp, Department of Geography, Glasgow University Roxann Wheeler, Department of English, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
1 Introduction	1	(13)
JAMES DUNCAN
DEREK GREGORY
2 Limited Visions of Africa: Geographies of savagery and civility in early eighteenth-century narratives	14	(35)
ROXANN WHEELER
3 Enlightenment Travels: The making of epiphany in Tibet	49	(21)
LAURIE HOVELL MCMILLIN
4 Writing Travel and Mapping Sexuality: Richard Burton's Sotadic Zone	70	(22)
RICHARD PHILLIPS
5 The Flight from Lucknow: British women travelling and writing home, 1857-8	92	(22)
ALISON BLUNT
6 Scripting Egypt: Orientalism and the cultures of travel	114	(37)
DEREK GREGORY
7 Dis-Orientation: On the shock of the familiar in a far-away place	151	(13)
JAMES DUNCAN
8 The Exoticism of the Familiar and the Familiarity of the Exotic: Fin-de-siecle travellers to Greece	164	(21)
ROBERT SHANNAN PECKHAM
9 Travelling through the Closet	185	(15)
MICHAEL BROWN
10 Writing Over the Map of Provence: The touristic therapy of A Year in Provence	200	(19)
JOANNE P. SHARP
Index	219