Defining Travel: On the Travel Book, Travel Writing and Terminology

Abstract

From the amount of critical attention and the number of labels applied to travel writing in recent years, one may well wonder whether critics are discussing the same object. The problematic status both of travel writing and of the terms used to describe it becomes obvious as soon as one tries to define the object. One must ask if Heart of Darkness, or Moby Dick, or any other number of such works, can be described as travel books or travelogues. Conrad's travels are at the origin of his novella, but one would be hard-pushed to affirm that a referential pact characterizes Heart of Darkness in a predominant way. Contemporary author, Jonathan Raban, has defined travel writing thus: As a literary form, travel writing is a notoriously raffish open house where different genres are likely to end up in the same bed.