Travel Writing Research Articles

Looking East: Constructing an Image of Vietnam in Russian Travel Writings of the Later Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

ABSTRACT Among the numerous travelogues written about Vietnam by foreign authors, Russian travel writings make up a modest amount, and may be less known to many readers. Although sporadic information about Vietnam had appeared in the Russian press since the mid-eighteenth century, only in the second half of the nineteenth century, when France promoted colonial expansion in Indochina, did the first Russians arrive in Vietnam. Their travel writings were afterwards published in Russia in some specialised publications, introducing this distant and unfamiliar Southeast Asian country to Russian readers. From the observative position that seemed to be between colonisers and colonised, as a third party, how did the Russian travellers depict and evaluate indigenous and colonial Vietnam? By employing the conceptions of Russian Orientalism and putting Russian travel writings about Vietnam in the context of the Russian vision of Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this essay aims to figure out the characteristics of Russian construction of the Oriental in the case of Vietnam.

Counter-Orientalism in Ella Maillart’s The Cruel Way

: Travel writing becomes an object of scholarly scrutiny thanks to Edward Said’s Orientalism in which he contends that travel narratives are not the objective portraits of Oriental peoples and loci, but the narratives that collude with Orientalism to justify and foster Western Empires. Nonetheless, scholars such as Behdad and Blanton disagree with Said’s view, asserting that travel writers can transcend the rigid norms of Orientalism. Thus, by employing Behdad’s and Blanton’s views as its theoretical approach, this article will read Ella Maillart’s The Cruel Way to highlight its counter-orientalism: the moments in which the travel writer challenges the inherited orientalist viewpoints. Accordingly, the article argues that Maillart exhibits her counter-orientalism in three ways: firstly, through fruitful engagement with Afghan food culture, secondly via celebrating the henna bearing testimony to her Islamophilic stance, and finally by interrogating the geography of violence. In doing so, she offers an unstereotypical picture of Afghanistan. To accentuate Maillart’s counter-orientalist stance, the present article will juxtapose her benevolent attitude with the orientalist outlook of male travel writers with respect to food, henna, and violence. It concludes that Maillart’s counter-orientalist perspective originates from her neutral nationality and gender.

Epski pogled na svet putopisca Grigorija Božovića

This paper analyzes the poetics of Grigorije Božović's travel literature, focusing on his attitude towards folk traditions in particular. A special emphasis is put on a metaphorical potential of the concept of "epic" in his travelogues, as opposed to Emil Staiger's concept of "epic" as well as other literary genres, mainly folklore. Further analysis encompasses the notion of epic man, the concept of tradition introduced by Thomas Stearns Eliot and it also explores the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity in Grigorije Božović's travel writings.

From Claiming Authority to Sensuous Excursions: Mapping the Female Body in Latvian Women’s Travel Writing (1878–1920)

From Claiming Authority to Sensuous Excursions: Mapping the Female Body in Latvian Women’s Travel Writing (1878–1920)

Writing from the Periphery: Alma Karlin's Autobiography, Travel Writing and the Journey towards Self-Discovery

Abstract: Alma Karlin is considered the most famous female Austrian travel writer of the 1920s and 1930s. On her typewriter 'Erika', she documented her eight-anda-half-year global journey before returning home to Cilli/Celje in present-day Slovenia. This article considers Alma Karlin's autobiography Ein Mensch wird and excerpts from the first volume of her travel trilogy Einsame Weltreise as examples of her self-perception as a solitary female traveller. The analysis takes into consideration Annegret Pelz's work on the relationship between travel literature and female autobiographical writing together with Bernd Stiegler's discussion of 'room travel', to argue that the act of travelling within oneself and the physical act of travel adhere to similar principles and possess a similar status in the identity household of the agents. Karlin's writing affords insights into her experiences that are partly personal and partly political; they have to do with gender, disability and citizenship. Her dissatisfaction with her Yugoslav passport, for example, allows us to consider to what degree Karlin's travels and identity were impaired in light of her new-found status as a 'Slav'. Alma Karlin gilt als die berühmteste deutschsprachige Reiseschriftstellerin der 1920er und 1930er Jahre. Mit ihrer Schreibmaschine 'Erika' dokumentierte sie ihre achteinhalbjährige Weltreise, bevor sie nach Cilli/Celje im heutigen Slowenien zurückkehrte. Der vorliegende Artikel betrachtet Alma Karlins Autobiographie Ein Mensch wird und Auszüge aus dem ersten Band ihrer Reisetrilogie Einsame Weltreise als Beispiele für ihre Selbstwahrnehmung als allein reisende Frau. Die Analyse berücksichtigt Annegret Pelz' Arbeit über Reiseliteratur als weibliches autobiographisches Schreiben sowie Bernd Stieglers Diskussion über 'Zimmerreisen', um zu argumentieren, dass Reisen im eigenen Selbst und der physische Akt des reisenden Ausgriffs im Raum ähnlichen Prinzipien folgen und eine parallele Bedeutung für den Identitätshaushalt der Betroffenen haben. Karlins Texte, ihre Auseinandersetzungen mit Geschlecht, Behinderung und Staatszugehörigkeit ermöglichen Einsichten sowohl privater wie politischer Natur. Ihre Abneigung gegen den ihr nach 1918 verordneten jugoslawischen Pass gibt einen Eindruck davon, wie stark Karlins Reisetätigkeit und ihr Selbstverständnis von der aufgezwungenen Identität als 'Slawin' beeinträchtigt waren.

Alma Karlin and Alice Schalek Look East: Travel Writing by Central European Women in the Interwar Period

Abstract: The article takes a comparative look at Alma Karlin's and Alice Schalek's travelogues from Japan of the 1920s. Both women originated from the former Habsburg Empire and became successful journalists and writers. Their travelogues show the unabating engagement with Japonism, the exotic and the 'other', while introducing new phenomena of modernity, such as women's lives in the big city, into the orbit of travel literature. Although both women came from different social milieus in Central Europe and travelled for different reasons, in their evaluation of foreign cultures they arrive at similar conclusions. This article attempts to explain these conclusions with recourse to their working methods and strategies. Both writers operated in a global journalistic environment, which offered them good earning opportunities. Their many public lectures and the use of the medium of photography further underline the democratization and professionalization of travel writing. Personal hardships (in the case of Karlin) and the confrontation with unfamiliar upshots of modernity lead both women towards conservative stances in their evaluations. Der Aufsatz betrachtet vergleichend die Reiseberichte aus Japan, die Alma Karlin und Alice Schalek in den 1920er Jahren verfasst haben. Beide Frauen stammen aus dem ehemaligen Habsburger Reich und wurden zu erfolgreichen Journalistinnen und Schriftstellerinnen. Ihre Reiseberichte zeigen die fortgesetzte Auseinandersetzung mit dem Japonismus, dem Exotischen und 'Anderen'; zugleich führen sie neue Phänomene der Moderne, wie das Leben der Frau in der Großstadt, in den Diskurs der Reiseliteratur ein. Obwohl beide Frauen aus unterschiedlichen sozialen Milieus in Zentraleuropa kommen und aus unterschiedlichen Gründen reisten, kamen sie doch zu ähnlichen Ergebnissen in der Bewertung der fremden Kultur. Der vorliegende Beitrag versucht, diese Ergebnisse anhand ihrer Arbeitsweisen und Strategien zu erklären. Sie agierten beide in einem weltweiten journalistischen Netzwerk, das ihnen gute Erwerbsmöglichkeiten bot. Ihre vielen öffentlichen Vorträge und der Gebrauch des Mediums Photographie unterstreicht die Demokratisierung und Professionalisierung von Reiseberichten. Persönliche Notlagen im Falle Karlins und insgesamt die Notwendigkeit, immer wieder Phänomene der Moderne und Tradition aus westlicher Perspektive erklären zu müssen, führen beide Reiseschriftstellerinnen zu eher konservativ anmutenden Einschätzungen.

Continental Tourism, Travel Writing, and the Consumption of Culture, 1814–1900 ed. by Benjamin Colbert and Lucy Morrison (review)

Continental Tourism, Travel Writing, and the Consumption of Culture, 1814–1900 ed. by Benjamin Colbert and Lucy Morrison (review)

Образ земного Рая у Ефросина Белозерского

The spiritual quest of Efrosin Belozerskii was inspired by the dream about searching for the earthly Paradise and its achievement. He not only copied the writings of travelers, but also wrote down other people’s oral stories. Efrosin was interested in information about the areas where the earthly Paradise could have been located (according to the Bible, in the East). Efrosin’s autographs contain stories about the miracle of the resurrection of a young man who saw the earthly Paradise; and among the other texts there is an Epistle from Archbishop Vasilii Kalika of Novgorod to Bishop Fedor of Tver’ about Paradise. Vasilii proved his opinion that the earthly Paradise had not perished and gave examples of the righteous visiting or being near as well as the testimony of eyewitnesses, Novgorodian sea travelers who reached the borders of the earthly Paradise. Vasilii Kalika’s epistle is missing in all fifteenth century Novgorodian chronicles apart from Efrosin’s collection and the Sofia First chronicle, whose older copies come from the Kirillo-Belozerskii monastery. Additions to the original text resemble similar additions made by Efrosin in other texts; the indication of the place where certain ‘rachmans’ lived in the epistle reminds of the rachmans’ utopian country, where, according to Efrosin, there was no state, church, crimes, trade, industry, or conflicts among people. The manu-scripts of Efrosin represent his dream of justice on the Earth, about the life without oppres-sion and violence.

Edward Thomas as a Travel Book Writer

The aim of this paper is to examine Edward Thomas’s literary representations of his walks and bicycle rides from the perspective of the development of the genre of the travel book in Britain. The paper provides a brief outline of the history of the synergy and friction of travel books with the genres of the novel and the autobiography, and the ways in which the developing naturalist and pedestrian discourses influenced travel books and travel accounts. A key argument constructed and developed in the second part of the paper is that the combination of Thomas’s dissatisfaction with the loose collage-like nebulousness of his early travel accounts from Beautiful Wales (1905) to The South Country (1909) and his wide knowledge of 19th-century British travel writers resulted in two ‘conventional’ travel books The Icknield Way (1913) and In Pursuit of Spring (1914), in which Thomas relied on such standard generic features as the diary format and the central role of the narrative persona.

ITALIJA U PUTOPISU „ORIJENT“ VISENTEA BLASKA IBANjESA

The paper analyzes the image of Italy in the travel texts Orient by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, published after the journey of this Spanish writer from France to Istanbul in 1907. Although Blasco Ibáñez did not pass through Italy during this trip, there are references to Italian culturein many texts, since the author had already stayed in Italy in 1896, when he published a travelogue In the Land of Art, dedicated to this country. Using the principles of imagology, the current paper analyzes how Italy becomes a cultural reference and the basis for comparing the peoples and places the travel writer visited in 1907. The image of the other is interpreted as a construct, a con- vention, as a subjective product of Blasco Ibáñez, taking into account the entire cultural mate- rial that was used for writing, that is, what the author of the image knew and experienced. In addition to its informative character, we note the reality embodied in the travelogue as a poetic projection of subjectivity. Although the typical comparison in travelogues is between us and the other, it is evident that Blasco Ibáñez does not put the Spanish in the relationship with the Other, instead there are mutual comparisons of other peoples. We conclude that Italian referencesfunc- tion as mediating elements in depicting other nations. Many places gain their identity precisely by contrasting or alluding to reference places in Italian culture.

Prilike u Pećkoj kazi (1899-1901)

Peć kaza found a place in the works of numerous travel writers such as Ami Boué, Dr. Josef Miller, Ivan Franjo Jukić, Gedeon Josif Jurišić, Aleksandar Giljferding and others who spoke of it as an unsafe territory "where everyone was a public hajduk". It was for this reason that they claimed that traveling in this area was extremely dangerous. The city of Peć was the seat of the kaza and at the beginning of 1899 it was the center of gathering of Albanians, united around the goals directed against the Serbian population. In January of that year, numerous Albanians from various regions met and held a meeting, where they spoke about opposition to reforms and the expansion of tribal self-governance. Through influential beys, Porta emphasized the importance of unity and joint action against possible attacks from Serbia and Montenegro. The agreement between them caused concern among the Serbs and hinted at even greater insecurity. The position of the Serbian population was negatively affected by the Albanians agreements, but also by mutual conflicts. This is best illustrated by the event that took place in the village of Verići, in which ten out of twelve Serbian houses were set on fire. The injured asked for help from the vali, the mutasarrif, the consuls of Serbia and Russia as well. Because of those events, the Kosovo vali Hafis Pasha came to Peć in the summer of the same year, but he did not take vigorous measures to prevent further suffering of the Serbs. His stay was mainly limited to daily meetings with Zejnul bey Mahmutbegović and the key figure in this area, Mula Zeka, whose views influenced the vali's decisions. During vali's mission in Peć, there happened atrocities on a much wider scale, which had never happened before. It was a very turbulent period of time marked by numerous sufferings, murders, blackmail, fines and expulsions of the Serbian population from those areas. Albanians were always ready to cause new disturbances, disobedience and nonpayment of taxes, which affected the weakening of the state. Among the most persistent were the Fetahović brothers, Colj Sokol, Jusuf, Mula Zeka, Adem Zajim, Ibrahim Mehmed Redžić and others. They contributed to the removal of the energetic officer Šemsi Pasha from Peć and the removal of Peć's mutesarrif Suleiman Pasha, who was replaced by Alil Pasha, the former commissioner on the Serbian-Turkish border. Sultan Abdul Hamid and the Porta constantly favored the Albanians and instead of punishing the criminals, numerous decorations and ranks were awarded from Constantinople. The continuous support of the sultan and the Turkish authorities incited the Arbanas of Peć to new acts of violence. In just two years, 1900 and 1901, crimes of apocalyptic proportions took place against the Serbs in the Kosovo Vilayet, of which the most victims were in Peć kaza. The reason lies in the fact that, in addition to the Albanians terror, the victims were also exposed to daily attacks by the Roman Catholic Albanians, who were susceptible to Austrian propaganda. The Albanians leader Mula Zeka, was considered an Austrian mercenary and dominated the situation in the entire Peć kaza, where, according to the estimate of the consulate of the Kingdom of Serbia in Priština, there were no more than 1,500 Serbian families at the beginning of the 20th century. Exposed to terror, the Serbs of Peć kaza fled from their homesteads. Many of them fled to Serbia, and some moved to other places in the territory of the Kosovo Vilayet, where their fate was still uncertain. The emigration continued later and according to the assessment of the Serbs of Peć kaza from 1907, in the previous twenty years, 20,000 people emigrated to Serbia and Montenegro, instead of whom Mula Zeka settled 300 Arbanas families from Malesia.

“Blessed Idlers” or “Indolent Loafers”: the Stereotype of Crimean Tatar Laziness in Russian and Foreign Mind in the Late of the 18th and 19th Centuries

This paper discusses the origin and evolution of the stereotype of “laziness” of the Crimean Tatars, which appeared in Russian and foreign travel writings from the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has been shown that this stereotype was a product of Western “armchair” knowledge of the Enlightenment, which produced the ideas of “terrestrial paradise” in faraway countries where lived the “noble savages”. Applying it to what was seen in the Crimea, the writers and scientists ignored the specificities of Muslim ethics and political-economic developments in the region. The reflections on the Crimean residents were sometimes influenced by subjective circumstances, such as conflicts with Tatars concerning the possession of land properties. The stereotype of “Tatar sloth” quickly established itself in public mind. It had real political consequences, as it influenced the actions of the government and private persons. Perhaps this stereotype was among the reasons why the integration of the Crimea into the Russian empire took a very long time.

The Image of the Other in Malayalam Travelogues: Readings of Kappirikalude Nattil and Sanchariyude Vazhiyambalangal

This paper primarily constitutes readings of two travelogues written in the Malayalam language in order to see how the image of the other evolves across narratives over time. My reading focuses on the dynamic and formative nature of the image of the other as it transcends the fixed theoretical positions and postulations. The image of the other presented in the event of reading could be better understood as a relational construction; which contradicts the essentialist claims made by theories about the identity of the other. The first travelogue Kappirikalude Nattil (1951) was one of the pioneering works of travel writing in Malayalam. Whereas the second book Sanchariyude Vazhiyambalangal (2018) presents a more nuanced and contemporary idea of travelling and exploration. To explore how the performance of travelogues in the event of reading contradicts the theoretical notions of the other, this paper contextualises the travelogues in the context of two theories related to othering. Those theories are Homi K Bhabha’s ‘mimicry’, and Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’. Importantly, this paper exclusively focuses on the ‘use’ of these theories in literary readings, and therefore the sociological or psychological validity of these theories will not come under the scope of this paper. To expand the idea of ‘self and other’ dynamics as a ‘relational construction’, the paper incorporates Martin Buber’s concept of ‘I and Thou’ and ‘Levinas’ ideas about the ethical approach towards the other. However, the paper does not intend to be an exploration of the intricacies in the philosophical and theoretical understandings of the other. Instead, it attempts a demonstration of how the theories of 'othering’ work in the context of travel writings and how the philosophical understanding of otherness sheds light on the reading of travelogues.

Henry James and the Quest for the Holy Grail: Victorian Medievalism and Modern Criticism

This article offers two case studies. The first examines James’s encounters with medieval buildings in his early travel writings. The second takes as its starting point James’s involvement in The Quest of the Holy Grail, a text which accompanied an 1895 exhibition of paintings by Edwin Austin Abbey. While James’s knowledge of medieval architectural forms seems both confident and coherent, his awareness of medieval literary forms seems more tentative and even sketchy. Reasons for this disparity are considered, but medieval romance motifs are nevertheless found to inform James’s conception of criticism from the outset of his career.

Ricordo di Mario Pozzi

Mario Pozzi (1939-2022), Italian Literature professor at the University of Turin and editor in chief of the Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, was one of the foremost scholars on Renaissance language debates and treatises. He conducted research and edited works that were pivotal in the field of artistic literature and travel writings of the 16th century. He explored the developments in the field of Italian Studies over time and conducted various studies on Benedetto Croce and on post-World War II scholars of Italian literature (Dionisotti, Fubini and Bonora). His compassion and generosity enabled many young scholars to further their research endeavours.

Austrian Travel Writing between the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries: Introduction

Austrian Travel Writing between the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries: Introduction

Putting the Netherlands in Perspective: The Identification of Alleged American and Dutch Traits in Dutch Travel Accounts of America, 1948–1971

ABSTRACT Between 1948 and 1971 more Dutch travel books about America were published than ever. Since America in this era was the prime model that was used in search of an ever-elusive Dutch identity, these books informed deliberations on the Netherlands as much as on America. This article details the topics that travel writers addressed to identify supposed traits that distinguished Americans from Dutch people. Highlighting how these traits were constructed in the past contributes to fierce contemporary debates about national identity. It is shown that travel writers consistently depicted Americans – who were regularly essentialised – as childlike, high-spirited go-getters. They were deemed efficient, pragmatic and self-critical. Their generosity was lauded, their alleged gullibility decried. Supposed Dutch characteristics were framed in contrast to these attributes. Most travel writers were rather critical. Dutch people were made out to be not as kind, dynamic, energetic, ingenious and open-minded as Americans. Various travellers targeted a petty-bourgeois mentality or narrow-mindedness in particular. As much inspiration as America provided, the prevailing attitude was that Dutch people should be cautious when it came to adopting American ways. Moreover, they should cherish their distinctive modesty, even-temperedness and level-headedness (nuchterheid) and their knack for conviviality (gezelligheid).

Victorian Women Writers and the Other Germany: Cross-Cultural Freedoms and Female Opportunity

Victorian Women Writers and the Other Germany: Cross-Cultural Freedoms and Female Opportunity

Image of India: A Study of Marianne Postan’s and Maria Graham’s Travel Accounts

From time immemorial, India has been an important place for travel. The reasons for travel to India were many, ranging from pilgrimage, trade, and conquest to exploration and diplomacy, etc. The British traveled to India basically for trade. Invigorated by the improvements in travel and expanding British influence, there was a spurt in travel by not only British men but British women as well. These women travelers traveled for many personal and political reasons. Many travel writers came to India from different parts of the world and depicted it in their own ways. The British women also depicted India in their own peculiar ways. This paper seeks to study the travel account of Marianne Postans and Maria Graham to understand the ways in which they represent India.

Жанрово-тематическая специфика авторских трэвел-блогов

Online travel blogs are a phenomenon of auteur journalism. This article describes the genre specifics of Russian-language travel blogs posted on Youtube video hosting and its development prospects. The new multimedia journalism is highly adaptable, mobile, feasible, and independent. Travel writers used to be limited to a narrow segment of TV channels and magazines; modern travel bloggers develop their own style and do not have to conform to that of the editorial board. The research featured such travel bloggers as Anton Ptushkin, Leonid Pashkovsky, and Anton Lyadov. Each blog proved to be unique it its topics, genres, and methods of presentation, which means that this sector of auteur journalism has a great potential.