On Travelogues and Travel Writing in Literature – IV

Travel gave fresh impetus to the writer the ‘illusory option’ of flight from their wearied present. As such, the traveler doubled up as a writer and an adventurer seeking the exotic or the wild, as an exemplar of the exotic, a connoisseur of fascinating landscapes, and an observer of strange habits, rituals and customs.

Hence, it goes without saying that, a successful travelogue carries with it, a great sense of curiosity and a sharp sense of humour – which were both part of the travel writer’s narrative strategies.

However, there is also the charge levelled against travel writers, particularly from the West, that they were much biased in their portrayals, depictions, and representations of the ‘Other’ or the East.

In this regard, studies in Postcolonial Travel Writing takes cudgels against such representations, and seeks to vehemently challenge such distorted prevailing representations of travel writing that emanates from the West as biased, lacking in truth value, and Eurocentric in its tastes.

Again, Debbie Lisle, in her recently published book titled, The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing problematises or rather politicizes the authenticity of the bestselling travel books, such as those by Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin and Michael Palin, by telling her reader that, there’s more to it than meets the eye! To Debbie, there IS a lot of identity-politics, geopolitics and cultural politics at play in contemporary travel writing! Therefore, despite the powers of globalization and multiculturalism on the one side, common stereotypes about ‘foreignness’ continue to shape the experience of modern travel.

In addition, Mary Louise Pratt deems such coordinates of these travel texts of Euroimperialism as, “Redundant, Discontinous, and Unreal!”

Well, this is meat for another whole series altogether.

To sum it up, the reader should bear in mind that, Travel Writing per se, is not an objective rendering of explorations or journeys that happen across countries, climes, peoples and places! undertaken. They are bound to contain preconceptions that affect representation to a great extent. Moreover, travelogues are heavily impacted and influenced by the narrator’s gender, race, caste, age, cultural standing and educational levels too. Hence, all travel writing is to a considerable degree ideological.

Now for a continuation on the slew of travelogues –

The Crossing (1994), is a novel by Cormac McCarthy. In this novel, young Billy Parham captures a wolf on his farm in New Mexico. He decides to return the wolf to Mexico, where he thinks it has come from, and in crossing over into Mexico, his life changes forever.

The plot of the novel takes place before and during the Second World War and focuses on the life of the protagonist Billy Parham, a teenage cowboy; his family; and his younger brother Boyd. The story tells of three journeys taken from New Mexico to Mexico. Although the novel is neither satirical nor humorous, its realistic portrayal of an often destitute hero taking part in a series of loosely connected quests in a brutal, corrupt world lends this book many of the qualities of a picaro.

The Pilgrimage is a 1987 novel by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho. It is a recollection of Paulo's experiences as he made his way across northern Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The novel serves as part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery.

The story begins in 1986, when the author fails his initiation into the order Regnus Agnus Mundi (RAM). He is informed that in order to get accepted into RAM, he must embark upon a spiritual journey along the Way of St. James in search of a sword, which symbolically will mark his acceptance into the order. The author sets off on this quest alongside another RAM member who is known as Petrus. He learns that the objective of this quest is to learn the simplicity of life and the nature of truth. Petrus guides him the entire way, showing him meditation techniques and delving into philosophy and Western mystical thought. The meditation exercises he teaches him include the RAM Breathing Exercise, Blue Sphere Exercise, Cruelty Exercise and many more. On this legendary road across Spain, the author learns that sometimes the most extraordinary, can be found in the simplest of things. The Pilgrimage has been translated to thirty eight languages all over the world.

The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), is a collection of three novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. This trilogy of fantasy novels describes protagonist Frodo’s perilous trip across Middle-earth to Mordor and back to his home, the Shire.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a genuine masterpiece. The most widely read and influential fantasy epic of all time, it is also quite simply one of the most memorable and beloved tales ever told. Originally published in 1954, The Lord of the Rings set the framework upon which all epic/quest fantasy since has been built. Through the urgings of the enigmatic wizard Gandalf, young hobbit Frodo Baggins embarks on an urgent, incredibly treacherous journey to destroy the One Ring.

On the Road (1957), is a novel by Jack Kerouac. This defining work of the postwar Beat generation is a largely autobiographical work written as a stream-of-consciousness creation. The story is based on the spontaneous road trips taken by the author and his friends across mid-century America.

The story is set in the late 1940s, told in the first person by Sal Paradise, a budding writer given to ecstasies about America, hot jazz, the meaning of life, and marijuana. The book’s protagonist is Dean Moriarty (“a sideburned hero of the snowy West”), who has spent a third of his waking time in poolrooms, a third in jail, a third in public libraries, and is always shouting “Yes, yes, yes!” to every experience. Dean and Sal and their other buddies—Carlo Marx, the frenzied poet; Ed Dunkel, an amiable cipher; Remi Boncoeur, who has the second loudest laugh in San Francisco—are forever racing cross-country to meet one another. Their frantic reunions are curiously reminiscent of lodge and business conventions, with the same shouts of fellowship, hard drinking, furtive attempts at sexual dalliance—and, after a few days, the same boredom.

Travels with Charley (1961), is a memoir by John Steinbeck. This memoir recounts Steinbeck’s drive through America with Charley, his poodle.

The novel depicts a 1960 road trip around the United States made by Steinbeck, in the company of his standard poodle, Charley. Steinbeck wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level, since he made his living writing about it. He wrote of having many questions going into his journey, the main one being, "What are Americans like today?" Steinbeck tells of traveling throughout the United States in a specially made camper he named Rocinante, after Don Quixote's horse.

Peer Gynt: Ibsen began to petition the government for a grant to travel and write. Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, written while Ibsen was traveling in Italy and published in Denmark in 1867.

Isherwood and Auden traveled to China in 1938 and 1939 and published the part travel diary, part war chronicle Journey to a War, which describes the Sino-Japanese War.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), is a play by Tom Stoppard. This play follows the travels of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Having traveled to Scotland and the Hebrides with Boswell in 1773, Johnson published his impressions two years later in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), which describes the customs, religion, education, commerce, and agriculture of eighteenth-century Highland society.

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