Introduction
Travel writing refers to personal experiences, adventures, and evaluations that serve as guides and sources of reference for other travelers. Travel writing has always been intertwined with visual activities in its various forms and media. The majority of travelers’ stories revolve around seeing, staring, and gazing. Travel writing studies include things like travel writing for recreation and adventure, shared identity representations of foreign cultures, expeditions of the political functions of travel, psychological correlates of journeys, literature about the study of language in travel, cultural diversity, globalization, and development. According to McGrane (1989), “To travel is to look — travel is ultimately a manner of seeing, a style of seeing: it is anchored in the eye, in our visual capacity (116). Distanced places, landscapes, alien people, animals, and items have historically gained consistency through seeing. The look is subsequently translated into the written or visual text. Travel writing, like everything else, has evolved with time. Pico Iyer has suggested in a recent essay that “travel itself is changing as the world does, and with it the mandate of the travel writer” (Iyer 5). Previously, travel writings focused on the writer/traveller travelling into “unknown” and “undiscovered” areas, meeting hazards, and visiting exotic locales. However, as the world changed, travel writing became more than that and started including the travelers’ experiences of European colonialism and imperialism as it has been discussed in this document. This report also argues that media and technology has also had a huge impact on travel writing as it has greatly influenced the travelers’ perceptions of their mandate and how they document their travel experiences and that of others.
From Herodotus’ Histories through Zhang Qian’s and Ibn Battuta’s accounts, ancient travel writing relied heavily on reportage and on-the-ground research to make sense of the areas they visited. Travel writing ceased to be largely a source of information about remote locations as the world shrank as a result of various scientific breakthroughs and transportation revolutions. With almost no place left to be “explored,” readers no longer sought ‘knowledge’ in travel novels, preferring instead to build a bond with the author, sharing the same journey and experiencing the same essence in the shared realm of storytelling as seen in travel writing works of authors such as John Krakauer in Into the Wild, which reports the events leading up to the death of Christopher McCandless, who embarks on a foreign path to Alaskan territory.
Politics, war, trading, adventure, voyages, and experiences have dominated travel writing throughout history. Their wish, in which people share their journeys and experiences on how they can travel and what their goals are. Herodotus, a Greek author, is credited with starting travel writing. He is regarded as the first true travel writer, having traveled all around the Mediterranean in search of historical landmarks, which he documented between 450 and 420 BC and which serve as the era’s chronicles. Individuals were exposed to new stories and knowledge following the crusades. People are fascinated by expeditions and excursions to various locations. Some travel stories such as that of Sara Wheeler in her work Terra Incognita, which is her personal account of her seven months’ travelling to diverse parts of Antarctica (Wheeler 1996), were produced to inform readers about the varied natures and cultures of the people they met while on the road. The history of writing advanced significantly further throughout this period.
Anyone interested in the field of travel writing has undoubtedly observed that it has grown in popularity in recent years. This trend can be seen in the increasing number of new publications in the genre as well as the expanding academic interest in travel literature. Travel writing, which has long been dismissed as ‘dead’ or failing to fulfill literary criteria, has emerged as a key source of material for analytical studies, particularly among scholars interested in the portrayal of culture(s) in literature. ‘Post-colonial’ travel writing has largely been ignored, despite the fact that travel books from most periods of English literature – and, in particular, those produced under the aegis of the British Empire – have been subjected to analysis with regard to various aspects such as colonial representation and discourse. Given the interest in post-colonialism in general and the aforementioned popularity of cultural studies, this is surprising. European colonialism and imperialism have had a profound influence on travel writing since the Renaissance, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries6 (Clarke 1). Travel books, memoirs, diaries, personal journals, letters, and ships’ logs were all used to preserve the European travelers’ narratives of “adventure, exploration, trip, and escape” throughout the colonial period (Blanton, 2002, p. 2).
A significant counter-development began in the 1980s, and it continues to influence travel writing and academic thought to this day. “The tone, style, and content of mainstream travel writing was altering,” according to Clarke (2018, p. 3): “narratives of travels into regions actively contending with the legacy of colonialism and imperialism were significant for the way such processes became a primary feature of the voyage itself.” A large body of travel writing had arisen that critically examined the ‘postcolonial situation’ of previously colonized regions. An example of such works is Olaudah Equiano’s 1789 book, The Interesting Narrative in which he gives his own personal account in slavery. There have undoubtedly always been critical, opposing viewpoints in the history of travel writing, but in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, “socially and politically engaged travelers have used their accounts as vehicles to critique the persistence of colonialism and imperialism” more than ever before (Clarke, 2018, p. 1). With the introduction of new media, this process has accelerated. Travel writing has spread throughout the internet and evolved dramatically since the digital revolution in the 1980s and the subsequent birth of social media in the mid-2000s. Blogging, photo-sharing, tweeting, reviewing, and rating on online platforms have led to a “resurgence in journaling of travel adventures and self-publication,” akin to early 19th-century travel tales (Pudliner, 2007, p. 46). However, there is a significant distinction in the question of representational authority. While the authors of colonial travel writing such as Thomas Moors were generally “famous persons whose travel narratives were usually sanctioned by the state,” making the writing exclusive and elitist, modern media travel writing, such as travel blogging, is participatory and democratized (Azariah, 2017, p. 2).
The beginning of the twenty-first century brought with it a slew of significant changes. Classical philosophies and ideals were shattered all around the world. Readers’ perceptions of travel literature changed as a result of this. Historians and anthropologists, as well as creative artists, could now be among the travelers. This can be identified in the works of people like Jon Krakauer who writes a non-fiction work of the story of another person, Christopher Johnson McCandless. In all cases, there were few female contributors to the genre. The male writers’ supremacy in the genre resulted in a recurring pattern of writing. When a travel writer is on the road, he is mindful of the influence his point of view will have. This objective perspective of keeping readers, writing style, story plot, and topic in the back of one’s mind gets in the way of creating fresh art. In retrospect, comprehending marketing and economic techniques generates creativity blockages. This design encourages the creation of cliché art. The travel writer’s point of view is more than a re-enactment of events. A piece of travel writing, it is fair to say, represents one’s ideals, personality, experiences, and judgments. When gender prejudices and biases are applied to a genre, it encourages monotony and repetition. This psychological stalemate and boredom can be solved by giving a new angle to the genre. Women travel writers provide a delicate, emotion-focused style to travel stories that is distinct from what is commonly consumed. For instance, Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita gives her own account of her experiences during her travels in different parts of Antarctica which some have described as her diary of self-pity, sexism, and criticism.
Traveling became a popular leisure activity during the twentieth century, resulting in a boom in the tourism industry, which has since grown to become one of the world’s largest and fastest expanding business sectors. With the rise of mass tourism and the spread of mass media technology, a slew of new kinds of travel writing emerged, including general and specialist travel periodicals, travel channels and specific TV programs, radio shows, tourism brochures, and so on. Travel writing evolved from being primarily self-published (as it was in the 19th century and previously) into being part of a booming tourist and advertising sector with the emergence of mass media. As communication experts Hanusch and Fürsich (2014) note, with the enormous role of the travel and tourist business in contemporary culture and the resulting popularity of travel writing, this hesitation has gradually faded over the last decade. Existing study on travel writing in media and communication studies focuses on four main areas, according to their observations: the representation of the “other,” the market and consumer orientation of travel writing, its ethics, and motivational components of travel writing (p. 9). Hanusch and Fürsich underline that the representation of the “other” is an intrinsic quality and primary goal of travel writing, emphasizing the significance of further investigation into the subject.
Tourism as a kind of new imperialism produced by ‘Western’ countries is perpetuated via travel writing as a representation of cultural/media imperialism. Tourism, in this view, exacerbates existing economic and political inequities by feeding into the global capitalist world order’s reliance and underdevelopment mechanisms. In other words, the tourism industry serves economic functions for wealthy tourism-generating superpowers while giving developing countries little authority. When the ideological aspects of this relationship of dominance and dependency between the ‘Western’ worlds and those who are controlled by them are considered, tourism becomes a form of neo-imperialism, and travel writing becomes a form of cultural imperialism that ‘produces’ and frames parts of the world for ‘Western’ audiences: “Whereas in the past, imperialism was about dominating the ‘native’ through territorial colonization, now imperialism is more about subjugating the ‘native’ through discursive colonization.” (Shome, p. 42, 1996).
When new visual technologies and entertainments kept the logic of the gaze and the assemblage of spectator and object, spectatorship and control methods became more prevalent in the nineteenth century. The visual politics of imperialism, in particular, resulted in the formation of disparities and a growing need to either appropriate or keep the object of perception at a distance. Western and Eurocentric ideas of foreign cultures could be expressed in a variety of ways, from geographical mapping to ethnographic exhibitions, thanks to technological advancements. In the 1830s, after lithography, the new daguerreotype technology began to pose a threat to painting. The daguerrotype offered travelers a more accurate portrayal of exotic locales than paintings because its image was duplicated on the silvered surface of a copper plate. Albums with selected photographic views, intended to be sold as mementos, became popular throughout Europe alongside illustrated trip books by tourists. While photographers in the early years of the medium traveled to other sites and returned home to market their photos, the expansion of tourism led to the establishment of local photographic studios. Visitors commissioned and purchased photographic keepsakes, which gave them a sense of ownership over the locations they had seen and allowed them to relive the thoughts and emotions they had felt during their visits to, say, Mediterranean countries like Italy, after the end of their excursions.
As the tourist business grew, so did the number of people creating personal travel albums. The album “testifies to the democratization of travel, the global development of tourism, and improved access to exotic locations in the aftermath of imperial expansion” in the nineteenth century (Dohmen 2016, 43). Travellers and tourists documented their adventures in intricate, multi-layered albums that combined personal images with purchased souvenir photographs, memorabilia, and parts taken from popular travel guides and pasted together. Written narratives accompanied them, recording and commenting on the locations and people they saw. The introduction of photography had a profound impact on travel and travel writing, and it was a watershed moment in the history of image-making techniques linked with travel. As technology advanced, travel literature featuring photographs or visuals derived from them became more popular, reflecting the century’s romantic love with the exotic as well as its positivist drive to gather and document facts. In her work, Sara Wheeler used a camera to document her journey (wheeler 220). As Peter Osborne argues, during the nineteenth century, as Europe was expanding, cameras and travel became inextricably linked, coexisting as part of the modernization process. Thus, photography altered the function of hand-made images inside the travel text, putting order on experience and infusing order with experience; in this sense, the camera established a relationship between identity, location, mobility, market economy, and representation (Osborne, 3–13). Photography was practically a commodity when it came to travel. Photography, which gained popularity during the Empire, provided images of indigenous peoples to Western viewers, which, rather than providing transparent, dispassionate access to visual truth, as contemporary proponents of photography’s objectivity repeatedly claimed, frequently confirmed prevailing views of “otherness” as primitive, bizarre, barbaric, or picturesque.
As seen, media and technology have played a significant impact in altering the form of contemporary travel writing in recent decades. Travel writers are experimenting with new ways to prosper and thrive in the changing world of social media, where information is freely available, images are shared instantaneously, and films are broadcasted and shared from all corners of the globe. This has always led to the investigation of new media outlets. Websites, blogs, and even social media profiles are now available for travel writers to submit their work. Although printed books remain an important medium, authors are no longer reliant on print publishers to reach their audiences. This has far-reaching implications: by deconstructing the usual writer-publisher-reader link, the new method encourages writers to examine hitherto untapped or undiscovered aspects of the genre. As a result, internet platforms have increased the variety, diversity, and originality of both content and writing techniques. Anyone can now share their trip experiences without the supervision or censure of an editorial body, thanks to the rise in popularity of travel blogging. This has not only narrowed the gap between the writer and the reader, but it has also resulted in the establishment of a pool of online content with a wide range of themes, attributes, and, most importantly, viewpoints.
Conclusion
Despite the above-mentioned changes and progress in the genre, the essence of travel writing has remained consistent and may continue to do so in the future. These narratives will always include elements such as soaking in the atmosphere, listening to people, eating local foods, probing cultural nuances of a particular location, and so on. Travel writing has relied on the most ancient art of storytelling since the beginning of time. Stories have always appealed to the human mind in some form or another, and simply presenting true experiences in the form of a story will always be at the heart of travel writing. Despite experimenting with form, medium, and technique, these essential essences will continue to infuse life into trip memoirs, keeping readers engaged in the stories.
Works Cited
Azariah, D. R., 2017. Tourism, Travel, and Blogging: A discursive analysis of online travel narratives. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
Blanton, C., 2002. Travel Writing. New York: Routledge
Clarke, Robert. “Toward a genealogy of postcolonial travel writing.” TRAVEL WRITING (1917): 1.
Dohmen, Renate. “Material (Re) collections of the ‘Shiny East’: a late nineteenth-century travel account by a young British woman in India.” Travel Writing, Visual Culture and Form, 1760–1900. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016. 42-64.
Hanusch, F. & Fürsich, E., 2014. On the Relevance of Travel Journalism: An Introduction. In: F. Hanusch & E. Fürsich, eds. Travel Journalism: Exploring Production, Impact and Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, pp. 1-17.
Iyer, Pico. “Why we travel.” The best American travel writing (2000).
McGrane, Bernard. Beyond anthropology. Columbia University Press, 1989.
Osborne, Peter. Travelling light: Photography, travel and visual culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Pudliner, Betsy A. “Alternative literature and tourist experience: Travel and tourist weblogs.” Journal of tourism and cultural change 5.1 (2007): 46-59.
Shome, R., 1996. Postcolonial Interventions in the Rhetorical Canon: An “Other” View. Communication Theory, 6(1), p. 40–59
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