The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives
By looking at the narratives of two major contemporary British travel writers, namely Bruce Chatwin and Iain Sinclair, this article aims at gauging the impact of postmodernity on the practice and discourse of travel. Indeed, their works are animated by two forces—one which aims at deconstructing pat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2011-05-01
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| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2479 |
| _version_ | 1828528525290766336 |
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| author | Claire Gallien |
| author_facet | Claire Gallien |
| author_sort | Claire Gallien |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | By looking at the narratives of two major contemporary British travel writers, namely Bruce Chatwin and Iain Sinclair, this article aims at gauging the impact of postmodernity on the practice and discourse of travel. Indeed, their works are animated by two forces—one which aims at deconstructing patterns of domination, whether political, social, economical, or cultural, encoded in space, and the other which strives to produce or reenact alternative lines of travel, whether through the introduction of myth, memory or desire. We thus contend that their travel practices are paradigmatic, in the sense that, beyond or below cartographic layouts, they offer different ways to organize space. Not only do Chatwin and Sinclair criticize and renew the practice of travelling, but they also fundamentally question its linguistic rendition. Indeed, linear developments are partly dispensed with and replaced by digressions, analepses, prolepses, ellipses, or the use of parataxis in order to problematize the relationship between language and reality and to emphasize the elusiveness of meaning. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T21:54:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-73aa0052ee2c4a81b02d6b8604bfc07a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 2271-5444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T21:54:05Z |
| publishDate | 2011-05-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-73aa0052ee2c4a81b02d6b8604bfc07a2022-12-22T00:49:22ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172271-54442011-05-014014316010.4000/ebc.2479The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel NarrativesClaire GallienBy looking at the narratives of two major contemporary British travel writers, namely Bruce Chatwin and Iain Sinclair, this article aims at gauging the impact of postmodernity on the practice and discourse of travel. Indeed, their works are animated by two forces—one which aims at deconstructing patterns of domination, whether political, social, economical, or cultural, encoded in space, and the other which strives to produce or reenact alternative lines of travel, whether through the introduction of myth, memory or desire. We thus contend that their travel practices are paradigmatic, in the sense that, beyond or below cartographic layouts, they offer different ways to organize space. Not only do Chatwin and Sinclair criticize and renew the practice of travelling, but they also fundamentally question its linguistic rendition. Indeed, linear developments are partly dispensed with and replaced by digressions, analepses, prolepses, ellipses, or the use of parataxis in order to problematize the relationship between language and reality and to emphasize the elusiveness of meaning.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2479B. ChatwinI. Sinclairdiscoursehorizonmapmemory |
| spellingShingle | Claire Gallien The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives Études Britanniques Contemporaines B. Chatwin I. Sinclair discourse horizon map memory |
| title | The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives |
| title_full | The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives |
| title_fullStr | The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives |
| title_short | The Politics of the Line in Bruce Chatwin’s and Iain Sinclair’s Travel Narratives |
| title_sort | politics of the line in bruce chatwin s and iain sinclair s travel narratives |
| topic | B. Chatwin I. Sinclair discourse horizon map memory |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/2479 |
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