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Travel Writing and Cultural Transfer
Travel Writing and Cultural Transfer addresses the multifaceted concept of cultural transfer through travel writing, with the aim of expanding our knowledge of modes of travel in the past and present and how they developed, as did the way in which travel was reported.
Travel as both factual and fictional— with authors and narratives moving between different worlds— is one of the many devices that demonstrate the fluidity of the genre. This fluidity accounts for the manifold and powerful influence of travel writing on processes of cultural transfer. This volume also illustrates that cultural transfer is frequently linked to issues of power, colonialism and politics. The various chapters investigate the transmission of other cultures, ideas and ideologies to the writer’s own cultural sphere and consider how the processes of cultural transfer interact with the forms and functions of travel writing.
Travel as both factual and fictional— with authors and narratives moving between different worlds— is one of the many devices that demonstrate the fluidity of the genre. This fluidity accounts for the manifold and powerful influence of travel writing on processes of cultural transfer. This volume also illustrates that cultural transfer is frequently linked to issues of power, colonialism and politics. The various chapters investigate the transmission of other cultures, ideas and ideologies to the writer’s own cultural sphere and consider how the processes of cultural transfer interact with the forms and functions of travel writing.
[FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures, 20] 2024. xii, 207 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 9 October 2024
Published online on 9 October 2024
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Series editor’s preface | pp. ix–x
- Author biographies | pp. xi–xii
- Introduction: Travel writing and cultural transferPetra Broomans and Jeanette den Toonder | pp. 1–15
- Chapter 1. Cultural transfer in the French Enlightenment: Sexuality and gender in Bougainville’s and Diderot’s writings on TahitiMarja van Tilburg | pp. 16–34
- Chapter 2. Cultural transfer as a performative act in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796)Petra Broomans | pp. 35–61
- Chapter 3. The temporalities of cultural transfer: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific travel writingKirsten Sandrock | pp. 62–80
- Chapter 4. Postcolonial images, ambivalence and weak border zones: “Us” and “the others” in the account of an early twentieth-century Swedish travellerEduardo Gallegos Krause | pp. 81–103
- Chapter 5. Theatre as an engine for German-Swedish cultural transfer in the early twentieth century: Max Reinhardt’s and Alexander Moissi’s guest performances in StockholmNina Brandau | pp. 104–134
- Chapter 6. “The East I Know”: Richard Wilhelm and The Soul of ChinaWeishi Yuan | pp. 135–160
- Chapter 7. Good migrations? Harry Martinson’s travel writing in an age of climate change, refugee crisis and pandemicsAndreas Hedberg | pp. 161–180
- Chapter 8. Exile, travel narrative and cultural transfer in Négar Djavadi’s Désorientale (2016)Jeanette den Toonder | pp. 181–202
- Index | pp. 203–207
“This insightful volume makes a significant contribution to the study of cultural transfer through its interdisciplinary approach and a diverse range of case studies. It serves as an essential resource for scholars focusing on travel writing, cultural transfer, and comparative literature, offering vital critical support for developing theoretical frameworks in these fields.”
Jin Tao and Yiling Xu, University of Macau, in Babel 72:1 (2026).