Speciale,
KandidatuddannelsenThis thesis investigates, through a comparative analysis, how travel literature reflects and influences Western discourses about non-Western cultures; specifically African cultures, and, at the same time, the Western world itself. I pay special attention to the way this literary genre revolves around the concept of difference and contrasts: Between them and us, home and away, Africa and the West. I focus on two different historical periods and two different travel literary genres: Travelogues from the second half of the 19th century, and travel blogs from the 21th century. For the theoretical framework of my text, I draw on postcolonial studies, such as Mary Louise Pratt (2008), David Spurr (1993), and Said (2002), and Foucauldian discourse analysis.
In regards to the first period, the 19th century, I will examine quotations and examples from two travelogues by John Hanning Speke (1863), and Henry M. Stanley (1878). Both of the travelogues can be seen as very explicit examples of a colonial discourse. I begin by sketching a framework for travelogues as a genre. Important for the comparative aspect of my analysis is their close relation to the diary; a trait travelogues share with travel blogs. After this discussion I examine passages from Speke and Stanley’s travelogues. In the second part of my analysis, travel blogs from the 21th century, I begin with a general discussion of contemporary travel literature. Even though the overall genre is often though of as politically “innocent” (Said, 2002), it becomes clear that a re-implementation of the colonial discourse can still be identified in much contemporary travel literature (Lisle, 2006).
Moving on, I investigate travel blogs from three interrelated topics; as a genre, in relation to tourism and in relation to authenticity. Through travel blogs, all written by Western travellers, a number of contemporary trends show themselves, such as the need to be mobile while on the move, the tendency towards self-exposure and self-reflexion. Looking at how non-Western cultures; specifically Africa, are represented through this contemporary genre, I show how two of my blog-examples can be seen as an expression of respectively a colonial, and a cosmopolitan vision. The conclusion of my thesis is that a focus on differences and contrasts still plays a defining role in regards to how Africa is represented through contemporary travel blogs. Even though they often focus on the attractiveness of these differences (e.g. the exotic, the authentic), it is still an expression of how the West is seen as developed, and Africa as less developed.
| Sprog | Dansk |
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| Udgivelsesdato | 3 feb 2014 |
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| Antal sider | 83 |
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| Udgivende institution | Det Informationsvidenskabelige Akademi |
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