Slow travel writing: Anik See’s Saudade: the possibilities of place

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Slow Travel movement encourages tourists to use slower modes of transport, to leave the beaten track, to meet locals and to learn some basics of the foreign language. All of these principles have been present in travel writing for almost two centuries. Despite the importance of slowness for the genre, little attention has been given to this subject in travel writing studies. This article contends that the valorisation of slowness in travel writing is intertwined with some of its central features such as nostalgia, the experience of place and the traveller/tourist dichotomy. Slowness, the essay argues, shaped the genre as we know it today. The focus of the discussion is on Anik See’s Saudade: the Possibilities of Place (2008), which echoes traditionally formulated ideas about the importance of slowness for travelling and relies on a contemporary understanding of slowness as a trope of resistance to the excesses of capitalism.