Travel Narratives

Question 1

Majories Morgan

Answer 1

Traveling age increased/started in Victorian Age. Before travelers talked about themselves and their experiences. Now travelers talked about whole countries/continents. John Murray III did this first.

Question 2

Pieter Francois

Answer 2

Early 19th c, was hard to distinguish between travel guides and travel accounts.
1836+ railways & travel industry allowed more to travel - now the middle class and upper class.
Early 18th c was now a large market for travel literature (made to sell??)
Most accounts superficial as they were based on short visits - activities to do for two months could be from a three hour visit.
Most accounts written for educational, artistic aspiration, or financial gain to boost social position.
Accounts had info but were more personal.
19th c travelers used a mixture of guides to travel.

Question 3

John Merrit

Answer 3

A traveler himself.

To make guides interesting, truth was sacrificed for exaggeration

Question 4

Richard Hakluyt

Answer 4

Accounts effective tools for promotion of political/economic expansion

Question 5

Travel narratives (pros)

Answer 5

Can have detailed descriptions of day-to-day activities - of themselves or of local customs
A source of cultures in a particular time
Has many forms - can be in autobiographies, logs, journals, poem, diary etc

Question 6

Travel narratives (cons)

Answer 6

Writers misreprented the societies they visited to keep commitment to their’s
Accounts are reflection of authors biases, prejudices and interests
Can have imperialist propaganda

Question 7

(Case Study) Marco Polo

Answer 7

(peter Jackson)
claimed he traveled to china and back to Europe
Shows more of 13th and 14th c western european culture than Chinese
He is not in Chinese records - did he really go?
Mentions little Chinese cultures