Travel Literature
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Travel Literature is travel writing of literary value. This genre is also called ‘Travel Record Literature’. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-culture or transnational in focus, or may involve travel to different regions within the same country. Accounts of spaceflight may also be considered travel literature.
Literary travelogues generally exhibit a coherent narrative or aesthetic beyond the logging of dates and events as found in travel journals or a ship’s log. Travel literature is closely associated with outdoor literature and the genres often overlap with no definite boundaries. Travelogue can also be a book or a film or a radio broadcast on travel. It is written in a style that is both interesting and informative. The Americans, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson and William East Heat-Moon, Welsh author Jan Morris and Englishman Eric Newby are or were widely acclaimed as travel writers.
The passion for knowledge about author countries has always driven men to embark upon land travels and sea-voyages to distant lands, the accounts of which have been left by them for posterity. Hence, the history of travelogues is an old as the history of man’s travels. Going far back in time, when the world was not much known, there were travellers like Al-Beruni, Fahien, Hiuen Tsang and others who travelled to lands in the East and the West and left rich accounts of their travels in books that have since served as important documents about the life, culture and history of the places they visited.
Early examples of travel literature include Marco Polo's Il Milione, Pausaniass’ Description of Greece in the 2nd century CE, and the travelogues of Ibn Jubayr (1145-1214) and Ibn Batutta (1304-1377) both of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail. The travel genre was a
INTRODUCTION
Travel Literature is travel writing of literary value. This genre is also called ‘Travel Record Literature’. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-culture or transnational in focus, or may involve travel to different regions within the same country. Accounts of spaceflight may also be considered travel literature.
Literary travelogues generally exhibit a coherent narrative or aesthetic beyond the logging of dates and events as found in travel journals or a ship’s log. Travel literature is closely associated with outdoor literature and the genres often overlap with no definite boundaries. Travelogue can also be a book or a film or a radio broadcast on travel. It is written in a style that is both interesting and informative. The Americans, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson and William East Heat-Moon, Welsh author Jan Morris and Englishman Eric Newby are or were widely acclaimed as travel writers.
The passion for knowledge about author countries has always driven men to embark upon land travels and sea-voyages to distant lands, the accounts of which have been left by them for posterity. Hence, the history of travelogues is an old as the history of man’s travels. Going far back in time, when the world was not much known, there were travellers like Al-Beruni, Fahien, Hiuen Tsang and others who travelled to lands in the East and the West and left rich accounts of their travels in books that have since served as important documents about the life, culture and history of the places they visited.
Early examples of travel literature include Marco Polo's Il Milione, Pausaniass’ Description of Greece in the 2nd century CE, and the travelogues of Ibn Jubayr (1145-1214) and Ibn Batutta (1304-1377) both of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail. The travel genre was a