INTRODUCTION
This unit is written, not just to „provoke‟ your thought about the reading of English or any other type of literature, but to further educate you about some forms of essays and literatures that you may have read in the past, but ignorant of the class of essay or the literary genre such works belong. Our idea is to let you know that apart from the traditionally known literary genres - drama, prose and poetry - there are other forms of literature in a class of their own. One of these is Travel Literature. We trace its history and explain the various types; we also give examples of the existing types of travel literature there are.
3.1 THE HISTORY OF TRAVEL LITERATURE
Travel Literature comprises the literary genre in its broad sense and application. It includes written literature, adventure literature, exploration, nature writing, mountain literature, guide books, diaries of traveller‟s experiences and accounts of visits to foreign countries, planets and remote places.
Travel literature gained currency during the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279) of medieval China. The genre was described as travel record or travel writing. It was commonly written as essay, diary and prose forms. The places and experiences of each traveller writer often dictated the type of material compositions that make up such travel texts. For instance, the travel literature authors, Fan Chengda (1126 – 1193) and Xu Xiake (1587 – 1641), used geographical and topographical information/material comprehensively in their writing.
Early examples of travel writing popular in Britain includes the 14th century travel experiences of Sir John Mandeville; the account of Marco Polo‟s journey to China; Queen Elizabeth 1(who reigned between 1558 to 1603) encouraged her nationals to travel wide and discover new worlds and terrains. She sponsored the trips and travel missions of many English explorers, notably Sir Francis Drake. Her reign is widely called the Age of Exploration. The exploits of famous English explorers like Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh in the discovery of Americas and West Indies are widely read and have continued to inspire poets, novelists and general writers, especially in the 17th century Romantic period. Other examples of travel literature are Thomas Coryat‟s accounts of his travels through Europe and to India; other travel literature texts include those written by Daniel Defoe, David Livingstone, a missionary explorer, Mary Kingsley, Jan Morris, Eric Newby, Bill Bryson, who explored England, Redmond Hanlen, who travelled up the Congo and the Amazon, the Australian, Robin Davidson, who traveled the Australian desert on a camel‟s back. Poets like Pausania gave a vivid description of Greece in his travel memoir, Description of Greece, in the 2nd century; so also are Ibn Jubayr (1145 – 1214) and Ibn Batutta (1304 – 1377), who wrote travel journals. Such experience was common in medieval Arabic literature.
Sometimes, a travel writer may engage in travel and travel writing for the sake of mere interest and pleasure of seeing the unknown. Such was the case of Petrarch (1304 – 1374) who wrote about his exploration of Mount Venloux in 1336. He explained that he traveled to the top of the mountain for sheer pleasure of seeing the top of the mountain‟s famous height. His companions, who waited below the mountain, he labelled, frigida incuriositas, “a cold lack of curiosity”. The writer then described his climb experience, comparing his moral experience in life with climbing the mountain as well as the allegory of his climb. His travel experience was similar to that of Michault Taillevent, a poet and Duke of Wellington, who in 1430 travelled through the Jura Mountains, leaving his readers with the frightening reflections of the rock and flaming mountain streams. The emotional tremor created by the climb to the crater of a volcano in the Lipari Islands in 1407 is described vividly in his travel memoirs. There is also the 15th century travel memoir of the French writer, Antoine de la Sale (1386 – 1460), Petit Jehan de Saintre, where he ascribed the reason for his travel adventure to “Councils of Mad Youths”, that is, youthful madness. In the same vein, Gilles le Bouvier in his Livre de la Description Des Pays expressed his reason for travel:
Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure, as I have done past, in seeing the world and things therein and also because many wish to know without going there, and others wish to see, go and travel. I have begun this little book.
Other examples of travel writings or book of travel, as it is commonly called, include the experiences of clergies and aristocrats. Some, driven by pleasure, leisurely travelled to Europe to learn about architecture and the Arts; some were driven by tourism; a ready example of this was Robert Louis Stevenson (1879) who wrote about his travels in the Cevenne (France). Other popular travel narratives also explored colonial and postcolonial experiences. Examples include Daniel Defoe‟s Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift ‟s Gulliver’s Travels, as well as Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness. Even though these examples are fictional narratives, the experiences of the travelers/writers show the adventure, risks and new knowledge they gained from their trips.
Some travellers document their experiences in the form of a diary, which is later edited and published. Such works are usually based on the actual experience and observation of the writer on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis, depending on the nature of the travel and convenience. Examples of such works are The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, published in 1786 by James Boswell. The interesting travel diary of Che Guevara – The Motorcycle Diaries – documents the places visited by the traveller. The observatory description of Greece, a travel narrative of the same title written by Pausania in the 2nd century AD, belongs to this category. Some other travel literature serves as a form of observation on a people, culture and their nation. For instance, the Trinidadian, V.S. Naipaul ‟s India: A Wounded Civilization. The writer settled in an area for a period where he observed the peoples ‟ culture, tradition, religion and daily interactions, and documented these experiences for posterity. Other examples of this type of travel literature include Deborah Tall ‟s The Island of the White Cow, Peter Mayle ‟ s A Year in Provence, Johnson Braid‟sA Walk Up the Town of the Red People.
In most cases, travels and nature intermingle in writings and observations, as seen in the works of Sally Carigher and Ivan T. Sanderson, Terry Hat, Louis Bright, Gerald Durrel as well as Ball Braide, Crane Edith, Anderson Thurber and Horgan Porter. Then we have naturalist writers who write about the adventures they experienced in the line of duty. Examples are Charles Darwin, who wrote an account of the journey of HMS Beagle at the fusion of science, natural history and travels; Charles Dickens ‟ American Notes (1842); D. H. Lawrence‟s Twilight in Italy and Other Essays (1916) and Morning in Mexico and Other Essays (1927); John Steinbeck‟s Travels with Charley: In Search of America; Hilaire Belloc‟s The Path to Rome (1902); and Mary Wollstoncraft ‟s Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796).
Some other adventurous writings are compositions coloured with nostalgia, as the feeling of departure from relations and loved ones combined with fear of the unknown characterised their writings. This is evident in the works of the following travel writers in the extracts seen below:
Fig. 1
Ben Hillary
First Travel to
France 1982
A departure
described
The will fell on me to embark on a journey that I had contemplated over the years. The strong will to go engaged my desire and reluctance to part with my love ones back home in England. More difficult was how to say a good bye to my wife, children and friends. But, how will I receive the friendly palms that will wave me off the shores of England at least for the brief separation? How will I look back to return a wave of the hand to the land that nursed me? But, the will to leave killed other wills in me and I said good bye to England and left for the inviting nobility, succumbed to the allure of Paris.
Fig. 2
Joshua Slocum‟s
Sail from
Boston, Sailing AloneAround the World
A departure
described (1898)
I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind of the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail … A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.
Fig. 3
Thomas West‟s
Sail from
London to India Mountain
A departure
described
(1964)
I was set for a journey, an adventure I had long contemplated, and now this minute, this hour, this day, the time has come for me to take a ride, in the wing of time, time that will dictate my pace, that determines man‟s wills, the very adventure that is his entire life. Time, I welcome you time, the arbiter, the sole determinant of the thought that conceived the journey I had long thought of a need to embark upon. Yes, I dare not look back at those I left behind with love, or else, I maybe set back, I also dare not look back in anger, otherwise, it maybe difficult forme to roll off the stone of vengeance locked up in me. And, now, I am good to go to that mountain, the mountain that had haunted my dream, good to go, I go …
In recent times, travel literature has emerged as a field of study with its distinct platforms, having journals, monographs, anthologies, organisations and conferences. Examples include Paul Fussel‟s Abroad (1980); Marianna Torgovnick ‟s Gone Primitive: Modern Intellects, Savage Minds (1990); and Dennis Porter ‟s Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing.
3.2 FICTIONAL TRAVELOGUES
Travel literature or writings also exist in the form of fiction, which is termed, fictionalised travels. This also exists in its generic form as non-fiction- fictionalised travel, the latter, though in some cases may not be easily differentiated from the fictionalised travel writings. Fictional travelogues are often based on real life or actual travels either of the writer or a real life account of another which the travel writer has described or fictionalised. Examples of travel literature based on actual journeys are Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness. The novel is based on the actual journey of the author up to the River Congo. Another real life travel which was reduced to a work of fiction was Kira Salak‟s The White Mary. This was a journey between Papua New Guinea and the Congo. In the United States, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road (1957) and The Pharma Bums (1958) to record his travels around the United States of America in the 1940‟s and early 1950‟s. The travel journey of Marco Polo or John Mandeville which is classifiably fictional and non-fictional travel writing is also important to our category of fictional travelogues.
3.3 PILGRIMAGE TRAVELS
This form of travel writing is not very different from the other popular types like the fiction and non-fictionalised travel literature criticism, adventure literature, guide travel books, imaginary voyages, among others. Although there are often common experiences in travel literatures around the world, pilgrimage travel is not exempted from such connectivity. Pilgrimage travels are forms of travel writings that discuss the experience of the traveller who has travelled to a place designated for religious purposes like Jerusalem or Mecca. Examples of pilgrimage travels are John Stephen Ken‟s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Ibrahim Ibn Jabar‟s A Travel Round the Kabar (1980), and the American tourist Mathew Johnson‟s Jerusalem (1967), a travel memoir that gave a descriptive account of the city of Jerusalem, focusing especially on its spirituality and what makes the city pilgrimage worthy.
3.4 THE SEVEN TYPES OF TRAVELLERS
There are many types of travellers, but seven of them are explained below:
The Cultural Explorers: These types of travellers are interested in the discovery and study of the culture of people. They study historic sites, monuments, engravings, designs history, language and whatever constitutes the cultural expression of the people.
Personal History Explorers: For these explorers, the main objective for travelling is to have a deeper understanding of their ancestry and heritage. They make tours to important land mark areas in style and comfort in familiar hotels, but they are conscious of their security.
The Virtual Travellers prefer the comfort of their homes to the uncertainties of unknown cultures and places. They are satisfied with the exploration within their localities, and trips are often within short distances and family-centred.
Free Spirit Travellers get excitement and satisfaction by traveling for the fun of it. This type gets thrilled seeking the best of everything, always emotionally engineered, and emotionally charged to seek fun away from the comfort of the home.
The Cultural History Buff goes beyond his/her own familiar terrain or roots to understand the culture and history of other people, mostly out of personal interest or hobby, making the experience a more rewarding venture. In the process of travelling, one observes and learns.
The Gentle Explorers visit and enjoy the security and experience of familiar environment. They visit historical sites and are usually led by a Tour Guide who narrates the history of the place or artifact.
No Hassle Travelers go away on brief visits, often unplanned and pre-meditated. They prefer to take short holidays away from familiar environments to visit their loved ones living in places they have not visited before. Such travels are usually worry-free and pleasurable.
3.5 IMPERIALIST TRAVELOGUES
These are the kinds of travel writings that concern the actions of a powerful country that tries to gain control or dominion over other countries or influence other countries socially, economically and politically. Examples of such imperialist travelogues are Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness and Mary Louise Pratt‟s Imperial Eyes (1992). Heart of Darkness is about imperial exploration of Congo while Imperial Eyes is a form of cultural inquiry into the intersection of gender and colonialism.
3.6 MORALITY ESSAYS
What is Morality?
Morality is the principle of right or wrong behaviour, a system that tells people how they should behave or act according to certain cultural or organised and acceptable conventional codes or ethics. Over the ages, there have been certain special or classic reactions in writing against some forms of behaviours considered uncultured, uncouth and immoral in societies. Such essays have been written to correct existing behaviours that are contrary or opposed to the right behaviours that are expected of every individual in the society.
These types of essays are termed moralistic, and their writers have been described as moralists, to reflect how much they have been identified with their moral ideals, morally conscious ideologies, principles or philosophies that are corrective in nature.
Morality Essays
Morality essays are ethical essays, which may also appear in the form of poems or any of the genres, the earliest example being Alexander Pope‟s An Essay on Man: Moral Essays and Satires in 1731. They come in form of four epistles addressed to a Lord Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift and a few others. Epistle I, addressed to Sir Richard Temple, Lord Cobham, deals with the knowledge and characters of people and sets forth the difficulties in judging people. Epistle II, which was addressed to Martha Blount, discusses the character of women. Epistle III, addressed to Allen, Lord Bathurst, deals with the use of riches. Epistle IV, addressed to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington deals with the similar subject of Epistle III, citing instances of the vanity of wealth, and a call to humanity to appreciate nature. It ends with the strong advice on the moral use of wealth.
In the modern period, it is the doggedness or commitment of moralists to their moral ideas in their essays that makes the society to often refer to them as ideological voices, moral activists or social activists. We can quickly mention a number of moralists and their essays around the world, some of whom are Frederick Watkin ‟ s The Age of Ideology, Adam Smith‟s The Wealth of Nation, Robert Nozick‟sA Libertarian Conception of Distributive Justice, Russell Kirk‟s The Problem of Social Justice, Mikhail Bakunin‟s Letter to La Liberte, Martin Luther King‟s Letter from Birmingham Jail, John Rawl ‟s A Kantian Conception of Equality, Mary Wollstonecraft‟s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and William Godwin‟s Love of Justice. The sound moral basis of the numerous essays of Thomas Aquinas has left a lasting impression about his life and ideology up to date. The next section will give a cursory look at the writings of Thomas Aquinas.
3.7 THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS AQUINAS
Thomas Aquinas, a professor of Sacred Theology, moral philosopher and a Catholic teacher, was a critique and moralist who was popular for his ability to sieve the philosophy of the pagan Greek philosopher, Aristotle, and decided its level or measure of relevance to Catholicism and theology. He wrote classics that covered the entire doctrine of Catholicism and trinity to morality before he died in 1274.
Theology gained more strength in the 2nd or 3rd centuries as more people became Christians and church fathers as well as bishops and theologians issued their comments and views on the Bible; and such views were held in great esteem, except the perspectives of pagan philosophers that were not respected because the church of the time did not see them as Christians. Christian philosophers and theologians of the time experimented with the philosophy of inquiry, the search for the truth, in relation to the stance of the scripture, which was regarded as the undeniable truth. Thomas Aquinas ‟ greatest achievement was the proof that God exists, using the logic of Aristotle as the basis of his argument.
Thomas Aquinas studied and applied Aristotelian model to his entire reasoning. Aquinas ‟ theory of knowledge is not a vision of the divine truth, but of how people may know the world. People are rational animals thus the world can only be understood by human reasoning. God has endowed people with reasoning ability so that they can understand the universe, and as higher animals, people can only know that which they can experience with the senses. In his total Aristotelian applicability, Aquinas argues “whatever is known is known in the manner in which man can know it”. This is a fundamental principle of all knowledge that could lead people to two directions, observed Aquinas.
Aquinas, it appears, was not satisfied with knowing things as they are, but was also interested in knowing the why of things, an idea that binds him to the logic of Aristotle. Aquinas believed in and found truth in logical argument, and was of the view that if one could argue back and forth successfully, one could find the first cause or first principle. The first cause, who is the prime mover, is God. He adopted Aristotelian philosophy in the analysis of the intellectual history of Europe, and at the same time fussed theological and philosophical analysis. He argued that faith and reason are different but lead to a single truth, but both are interwoven or interconnected. The truth is God‟s will and His knowledge – the basis of scholasticism, the divinity and Christian truth based on logical and rigorous argument.
Thomas Aquinas was certainly the new Aristotle of the 13th century. It was Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), the poet, who was most critically damaging to Christianity. In his work, The Divine Comedy, written after 1302, Dante was quite critical of the Church of Rome. His criticisms were about the failure of Popes and the clergy to live up to the requirements of their offices. And, while he described the Church as a harlot, he never though disputed church doctrine or orthodoxy. For Dante, the message was clear – the church was not serving the spiritual needs of the flock.
Abelard, Aquinas and Dante helped to construct worldview which placed reason and faith at the centre of people‟s quest for truth. The truth was God and God‟s will. But over the course of the next several centuries, reason and faith would be slowly drawn apart. The European mind awakened itself from centuries old slumber and began to justify itself according to the principle of a new synthesis.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have discussed the history of travel literature, its types, morality essays, and taken a cursory look into the works of Thomas Aquinas.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt:
. travel literature has an interesting history;
. there are different types of travel literature;
. the moral and theological philosophy of Thomas Aquinas;
. the nature of fictional, pilgrimage and imperialist travelogues.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1) Discuss the history of Travel Literature.
2) What is fictional travel literature?
3) Write briefly on:
(i) Pilgrimage travel
(ii) Imperialist travelogues
4) What do you find interesting in the moral philosophy of Thomas Aquinas?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Chaney, Edward (1998). The Evolution of the Grand Tour Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations Since the Renaissance. London: Frank Class.
Cox Edward Godfrey (1935). A Reference Guide to the Literature of Travel, including Voyages, Geographical Descriptions, Adventures, Shipwrecks and Expeditions. Seattle: University of Washington.
Fussel, Paul (1963). Patrick Brydone: The Eighteen Century Traveller as Representative Man: Literature as a Mode of Travel. New York: New York Public Library.
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