RE-EXPLORING TRAVEL LITERATURE: A DISCOURSE- - CENTRED APPROACH.TO THE TEXT TYPE Matthew Wispinski B.A. University of Alberta 1 993 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FaFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER>OFARTS 1 in the Department English Copyright Matthew wispinski 1997 - SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY August 1997 AH nghts reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ~atiorblLibrary BiblioWque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington %eet 395, rue Wellington OnawaON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON KlA ON4 Canada m Canada Ma 3 Your Yorre reUrence The author has granted a non- - L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prCter, dstribuer ou copies of tlm thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/filrn, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electro~llque. The author retams ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in thls thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre irnprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. APPROVAL NAME: Matthew Wispinski DEGREE: Master of Arts (English) TITLE OF THESIS: Re-exploring Literature: to the Text Type Examining Committee: Chair: Chin Banerjee Janet Giltrow, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor of English David Stouck Professor of English Eva-Marie Kroller External Examiner Professor of English University of British Columbia Date Approved: q29,,947 U Abstract The siudy of travel writing often has been undertaken in a haphazard or 6 decontextualized manner, sometimes as a way of supporting biographical research or of supplementing a general theoretical project. Such studies have contributed to a partial and sometimes inaccurate impression of travel literature within the academy This thesis is an. attempt to engage with the'literature of travel at the level of genre, an attempt to suggest its unique configuration of properties and stylistic conventions Examining travel literature ''up its own terms*'will contribute to the clarification of it as a distinct text type and may help reduce the instances of misapprehension of it In this thesis, I collect linguistic data found in travel texts and interpret them within a framework of genre theory and travel criticism. I engage with a variety of travel narratives from various historical perjiods, but I have focussed primarily on two texts from the twentieth century Vita Sackville-West's Pmseqer to Teheran ( 1 926) and Robert 1 L-. Byron's fie Road to Oxiana (1 937). My choice of texts was determined by the stylistic 4, differences between the two works, iC being my belief that similarities found in the midst of variety will enhance the validity of my suggestions about the ge&e. This thesis is broken down into four chapters In chapter I, I review relevant literature pertaining to this study and outline my theoretical perspective Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, examine Sackwlle-West's and Byron's works Both body chapters focus on three aspects central to understanding travel literature. thewriter's strategies for 1 ) 8 constructing his or her spatiotemporal context, 2) establishing and maintainkg his or her particular relationship with fie reader, and 3) depicting (the experience of) chaos and order in the travel context Chapter 4 suggests how my thesis might be applied in future studies of the genre I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Janet Gdtrow, for her advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank my fiends and family for their support. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I . , . ... 1 Chapter 2 . Chapter3 . , .. Chapter 4 . .... .... ........ 93 Appendices . ...... ,... Endnotes . Works Cited . , Chapter I In English literary studies in the twentieth century, travel writing has occupied a margmal place in theegenre hierarchy, perhaps slightly ahead of the letter in importance, but far down the list behind the novel, the poem, and the play in terms of prestige A consequence (and a cause) of the low vaiye generally placed on travel writing has been. lack of scholarship on the subject. Michael ~owalewskisuggests another factor B contributing to the "seanty . critigsm of modem . travel writing" ( 1 ) He prbposes that the "dauntingly heterogeneous character" (7) of the travel genre has kept literary critics away. Kowalewskj's observation seems, to a certain extent, a valid one: as he points out, the travel genre "borrows freely from the guidebooks, confessional n&ative, and, most observation is true only insofar as it identifies thanaan overarching, exclusive truth about travel writing. For heterogeneity is by no means peculiar to travel writing Living as we do in a post-Bakhtinian age, we (hopehlly) will recognize the heterogeneous and heteroglossic nature of any and every ~tterance,~let alone any and every genre. To define travel writing, and travel writing alone, as a mere composite of other genres, as some critics might suggest, is reductive of the type Do not , works of travel writing possess some identifiable and common traits') Are there not some characteristics of travel narrative that allow us to recognize it as travel narrative? This thesis will attempt to suggest some of these characteristics in twentieth-century travel writing, through detailed case studies of a small number of texts, which hopefully resonate with other travel texts. It is, in focus, a genre study. My work is guided by the notion that to grasp some of the complexity of travel writing, one must undertake an in-depth study of the text type Only then will unnecessary misconceptions about the genre be I avoided .As I suggested earlier, citing Kowalewski, detailed genre analyses of travel writing are rare But the twentieth century has seen quite a number of other academic appropriations of the genre. Unfortunhtely, some of these have been haphazard or decontextualized s~udies,leading to misapprehensions about travel writing. As an - i undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, I experienced this firsthand 1 was + recommended a number of travel journals by a professor teaching me a course in Central American history, so I could "get my facts straight." In this context, I was not encouraged to question the "factual" material within the various travel pieces, nor to view such material in the context of generic conventions or traditions, but rather to mine these travel texts for objective historical information, not unlike a grade-schooler might be expected to absorb a mathematics 1esson.j E It is also not uncommon to see travel narrative used as a means of stopping a gap in a critic's biographical research'of a particular, deceased canonical figure. Sybille Bedford, in her work on the life of Aldous Hudey, for example, is interested in Jesting Pilate almost solely for what "facts" about Huxley's life it may illuminate5 However, the .use of travel literature as biography, though no doubt helpfbl in Bedford's project and in projects like hers, is not altogether unproblematic. It may perpetuate the notion that travel writing, being "non fiction," is necessarily factually true.6 And it obscures the complexity +. and conventionality of much travel writing; it can be a myopic view of the genre Another example: in Paul Delany's informative and well-received biography of D. H. Lawrence, his exploration of Twilight in Italy as pertaining to Lawrence's life and ak might be somewhat mislqding. For instance, he states that "Lawrence feels that each nation's'character should be organically based on its landscape and history. ~e believes in national or local u types . "'(1 38). Such a claim, although likely true of Lawrence, might not be as peculiar to him as might be implied. As Batten suggests, "travel literature" should not be-seen as "a miscellaneous form of writing primarily governed by the-subjectivewhims of its authors" (Pleawrahle Iralrtrction 1 17). Readers of travel writing will recognize that the , typing of others on national lines and the linlung of history or landscape and architectural features with national characteristics happens over and over in travel writing by various writers from vari~us.~eriods.~Batten also declares, "[g]eneric~convention,not personal taste, dictates to a great extent what a traveler says" (1 5). elan^, like other biographers, then, might -be mistaking generic convention for a personal attribute'or attitude. "Such opinions are oot uncommon in partial or decontextualized readings of travel writing. For this reason, a thorough knowledge of the travel genre and its conventions is necessary if the nature of travel literature is to be understood, and if errors such as these are to be avoided. Knowledge of the genre is to be obtained, obviously, through in-depth study of a wide variety of travel texts; in this way, conventions of the genre will be more . easily recognized and will be less likely to be mistaken for authorial peculiarities Also, however, some grounding in genre and discourse theory is of vital importance. In the following section, I will outline some of the more noteworthy theorizitions of genre and discourse8 and will situate my own approach to the study of genre relative to them. 1 believe that the knowledge of a particular genre (and dhow to descnbe A,) depends. to some extent, on knowing how to describe and classify genres. a Why Study Genre? To answer the necessary question "why study genre?" we may look to a number of sources Some philosophers, such as Karl R Popper, might suggest genre study is part of a human biologcal compulsion to find regularities, to classifjl.