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History, memory, and trauma in postcolonial travel writing
Citation
Clarke, R, History, memory, and trauma in postcolonial travel writing, The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Travel Writing, Cambridge University Press, R Clarke (ed), Cambridge, pp. 49-62. ISBN 9781316597712 (2018) [Research Book Chapter]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2018 Cambridge University Press
DOI: doi:10.1017/9781316597712.005
Abstract
The postcolonial always involves an encounter with the past, and that encounter is perhaps nowhere more compelling than in travel writing. At stake in this encounter is the question of how the past inheres within the present, and how, in travel writing, the traveler, travelee, and reader are affected by and implicated in the persistence of the past. At its worst, postcolonial travel writing exploits nostalgic and sentimental versions of the past that legitimize the history of colonialism and reinforce social divisions that underlie the contemporary global order. Yet at its best, postcolonial travel writing bears witness to the enduring legacies of the past in ways that trouble contemporary certainties, and it performs the valuable political and moral work of reckoning with the past in the name of a just future.
Item Details
Item Type: | Research Book Chapter |
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Keywords: | English literature, European and World literature, general interest, literature, literary theory |
Research Division: | Language, Communication and Culture |
Research Group: | Literary Studies |
Research Field: | Literary Studies not elsewhere classified |
Objective Division: | Cultural Understanding |
Objective Group: | Communication |
Objective Field: | Languages and Literature |
UTAS Author: | Clarke, R (Dr Robert Clarke) |
ID Code: | 124483 |
Year Published: | 2018 (online first 2017) |
Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
Deposited On: | 2018-02-23 |
Last Modified: | 2019-01-15 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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