Not So Innocent Abroad: The Politics of Travel and Travel Writing

In contrast to most scholarly publications that primarily focus on travel literature of former colonial nations, this volume includes a broader range of travelogues depicting cultures worldwide, spanning from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. It thus offers with its comparative approach not only a geographically wide selection but also an historical dimension to the political aspects of travel writing.

Although most travel literature generally has followed the Horatian principle to instruct and delight the armchair traveler, the authors of this volume clearly address the broader political implications of travel and travel writing within networks of “naked” politics, such as international or interior conflicts, emigration laws, or national propaganda. They also reveal how insidiously political messages are dissimulated through travel writing.