Travellers' Tales of Wonder

'A wonderful book opening new and inspiring perspectives on travel literature. If a landscape is, as Roland Barthes said, the "organisation of horizons", the triangle between Chatwin, Naipaul and Sebald is in fact proposing a new landscape for the theory of travel literature in a global and dynamic sense.' Ottmar Ette Argues that travellers' tales of wonder are a vital yet unacknowledged presence in contemporary literature This study challenges a sensibility of disenchantment with travel by exploring wonder in contemporary travel writing. It reassesses travel writing as an aesthetically and ethically innovative form in contemporary international literature, and demonstrates the crucial role of wonder in the travel narratives of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, V. S. Naipaul, and W. G. Sebald. Their tales are read as a challenge to the hubris of thinking the world too well known, and an invitation to encounter the world - including its most troubling histories - with a sense of wonder. Key Features - Reassesses the place of travel writing in literary history - Demonstrates the central role of wonder in travel accounts often regarded as narratives of disenchantment - Explores the way these tales recover and renew ancient and early modern forms in approaching modern and contemporary issues - Offers new, in-depth readings of the work of three major writers, drawing on unpublished results of archival research on Chatwin and Sebald Simon Cooke is a Research Fellow in English Literature at The University of Edinburgh. Cover image: Rio de las Pinturas (c) Bruce Chatwin / Trevillion Images. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com