Travel Writing by Thompson, Carl;

Short description:

Concise and practical, Travel Writing is the ideal introduction for those new to the subject, as well as a crucial overview of the terminology, history and debates within the field.

Long description:

An increasingly popular genre ? addressing issues of empire, colonialism, post-colonialism, globalization, gender and politics ? travel writing offers the reader a movement between the familiar and the unknown.

In this volume, Carl Thompson:

• introduces the genre, outlining competing definitions and key debates


•  provides a broad historical survey from the medieval period to the present day


• explores the autobiographical dimensions of the form


• looks at both men and women?s travel writing, surveying a range of canonical and more marginal works, drawn from both the colonial and postcolonial era


• utilises both British and American travelogues to consider the genre's role in shaping the history of both nations.

Concise and practical, Travel Writing is the ideal introduction for those new to the subject, as well as a crucial overview of current debates in the field.

"Given the popularity of travel studies and the quality of Thompson's effort, this book seems likely to become required reading for those interested in the genre. Summing Up: Highly recommended." - P. A. Riggle, Truman State University in CHOICE

"...a really exceptional introduction to the genre ... as exhaustive in its coverage as it is scrupulous in its analysis of the different forms and effects of travel writing." Robert Spencer, University of Manchester, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 48.4

"This is an outstanding volume, cogently argued and intelligently illustrated. It is a highly recommended introduction for those curious about the subject, but will also constitute for those already familiar with the field a refreshing engagement with, and firm intervention in, contemporary scholarship on the form." Charles Forsdick, University of Liverpool, Studies in Travel Writing 17.1

"Carl Thompson?s Travel Writing is a concise, informative, and helpful introduction to the genre and the practice of travel writing study. Thompson offers a lucid and skillful orientation to the genre (introduction and chapter 1). The rich intellectual landscape he paints shows that travel writing scholarship deserves greater recognition than previously credited." Ryota Nishino, University of the South Pacific

Table of Contents:

Introduction  1. Defining the Genre  Exclusive and Inclusive Definitions of Travel Writing  Traveller?s Tales: Fact and Fiction in Travel Writing  The Cultural and Intellectual Status of Travel Writing  2. Travel Writing through the Ages: An Overview  The Ancient World  Medieval Travellers and Travel Writing  Early Modern Travel Writing  The Long Eighteenth Century, 1660-1837  The Victorian and Edwardian Periods, 1837-1914  Travel Writing from 1914 to the Present  3. Reporting the World  Discoveries and Wonders: Some Perennial Problems in Travel Writing  Shifting Protocols of Authentication and Plausibility  Authority and Factuality in the Modern Travel Book  4. Revealing the Self  Grand Tourists, Pilgrims and Questing Knights: Self-Fashioning in Addison?s Remarks on Italy (1705) and Ralegh?s Discoverie of Guiana (1596)  Writing the Self: Travel Writing?s Inward Turn  The Imperious ?I?  5. Representing the Other  Strategies of Othering I: Travel Writing and Colonial Discourse  Strategies of Othering II: Travel Writing in a Post/Neo-Colonial Era  6. Questions of Gender and Sexuality  Masculinity, Travel and Travel Writing  Women?s Travel Writing in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries: Performing Femininity on the Page  Women Travellers and Colonialism  Women?s Travel Writing Today