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RE-EXPLORINGTRAVEL LITERATURE: A DISCOURSECENTRED APPROACH TO THE TEXT TYPE
Matthew Wispinski B.A. University of Alberta 1993
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTML FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUEREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department
of English Copyright Matthew Wispinski 1997
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY August 1997
AU rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author.
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Abstract
The study of travel writing often has been undertaken in a haphazard or decontexwalized manner, sometimes as a way of supporting biographical research or of supplementing a general theoretical project. Such studies have contributed to a partial and sornetimes inaccurate impression of travel literature within the acaderny. This thesis is an atternpt to engage with the literature of travel at the level of genre, an atternpt to suggest its unique configuration of properties and stylistic conventions. Examining travel literature "on its own terms" wdi contribute to the clarification of it as a distinct text type and rnay help reduce the instances of misapprehension of it. In this thesis, 1 coiiect linguistic data found in travel texts and interpret them within
a h e w o r k of genre theory and travd criticism. 1 engage with a variety of travel narratives fiom various historical periods, but 1 have focussed ptimady on two texts fiom the twentieth century: Vita Sackville-West's Passenger to Teherm (1926) and Roben Byron's De Roudto Oxiana (1937). My choice of texts was d e t h n e c i by the stytistic differences between the two works, it being my belief that similarities found in the midst of variety d l enhance the validity of my suggestions about the genre.
This thesis is broken d o m into four chapters. In chapter 1 , I review reIevant iiterature pertaining to this study and outline my theoretical perspective. Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, examine Sachaille-West's and Byron's works. Both body chapters focus
on three aspects central to understanding travel literature: the writeis strategies for 1) constructing his or her spatiotemporal context; 2) establishing and maintainhg his or her particular reiationship with the reader; and 3) depicting (the experience of) chaos and order in the travel context. Chapter 4 suggests how rny thesis might be appkd in fLture studies of the genre.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Janet Giitrow, for her advice and encouragement. 1 would also iike to thank my &ends and family for their support.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapterl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter2 . . . . . . . .