Sunday 11 March 2018

On Travelogues and Travel Writing in Literature - V

Hari Kunzru is yet another vibrant travel writer with a love for all things adventurous! The son of a man from the Kashmir province in India and a British woman, Hari Kunzru was honoured by 'The Observer,' in 1999 ,  with their Young Travel Writer of the Year Award

Kunzru’s familial background inspired him to write The Impressionist about an Indian-English young man, Pran Nath. Kunzru told Richard Alleyne of the London Daily Telegraph, ‘‘At Oxford, I noticed how much people play out a comedy of Englishness, which made me very interested in identity role-playing in post-colonial Britain.’’ Kunzru’s The Impressionist revolves around the efforts of a young man of mixed heritage to make a place for himself in the world. Travel as a theme becomes apparent as the protagonist sheds his identity and his belongings in each country.

Part of what motivates The Impressionist is the openmindedness Kunzru gained from his mixed heritage. In one interview with the London Independent Sunday, he stated, ‘‘I’ve always been very scared of people who are certain. . . .Nothing terrifies me more than a religious fundamentalist who really knows what right is and is prepared to do violence to what they consider is wrong. . . . I wanted to write in praise of the unformed and fluid.’’

The Road (2006), is a novel by Cormac McCarthy. This book, one of the most violent novels ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, is the postapocalyptic survival story of a father and his son traveling across a wasteland populated by desperate marauders. McCarthy foregrounds only the very basics of physical human survival and the intimate evocation of a destroyed landscape drawn with such precision and beauty. He makes us ache with nostalgia for restored normality. McCarthy uses these vividly described, amoral villains as points of contrast with human instincts for decency and civilization.

Alphonse de Lamartine’s The Fall of an Angel (1838) reflect his travels in the Middle East and his fascination with reincarnation and pantheism.


The Stand (1978), is a famous a novel by Stephen King. In this epic tale of good versus evil, survivors of a plague travel across an America that has been decimated by disease and supernatural happenings. The story outlines the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic which kills off the majority of the world's human population.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), is a novel by J. K. Rowling. In this third book of the famous series, the title character and his magic friends travel back in time to save themselves from imminent harm.

Naked Lunch (1959), is a novel by William S. Burroughs. This story is about the world travels of a junkie, told in a weirdly disjointed narrative; The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes. Burroughs claimed it could be read in any order.

Interestingly, Burroughs states in his introduction that Jack Kerouac suggested the title. "The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.”

The book begins with the adventures of William Lee (also known as "Lee the Agent"), who is Burroughs' alter ego in the novel. His journey starts in the U.S. where he is fleeing the police in search of his next fix. There are short chapters describing the different characters he travels with and meets along the way.

An aura of romanticism pervades Li Po’s life and poetry. With his fondness for adventure and traveling, his search for alchemy and the elixir of life, and his love of nature, he exemplifies these typical Taoist trends in his poetry. In addition, his work often reflects the kind of melancholy that a man feels when he finds his talents unused and his life wasted.

Candide (1759), is a novel by Voltaire. Considered by many to be part of the Western canon of great literature, this work explores the human condition and contains themes of travel and quest. Voltaire's philosophical tale is also a miniaturised picaresque novel. Candide is a naive lad living in Westphalia. Pangloss, a disciple of Liebniz, teaches him that all things are part of God's beautiful design.

Invisible Man (1952) is a novel by Ralph Ellison. This story is about the travels of a narrator, a nameless African American. In the novel, Ellison explores the influences of various cultural and political forces, particularly with regard to race, on identity formation.

Fungi from Yuggoth (1930–1947), is a sonnet sequence by H. P. Lovecraft. This work contains unusual themes for a sonnet sequence: it is a tale of science fiction and horror. In it, the narrator discovers a book that allows him to travel to distant planets, where he meets unusual races of creatures.

Mules and Men (1935), is a travelogue by Zora Neale Hurston. This unique anthropological travelogue documents the hoodoo practices of southern blacks, with many folktales thrown in. The work has a significant legacy in African American literature and anthropology. Mentor and writer of the preface, the father of American anthropology Franz Boas wrote that “the great merit of Miss Hurston's work that she entered into the homely life of the southern Negro” with a “charm of a loveable personality and of a revealing style.”

Aurora Leigh (1856), is an epic poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She further styled the poem as “a novel in verse,” and referred to it as the most mature of her works. A nine-volume epic poem written in blank verse, this work chronicles the life and travels of its strong and capable heroine.

Sources: Gale/Britannica/Guardian/Independent/Routledge/Good Reads
Image: goodreads

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