"With essays by Gloria Anzaldua, Jean Baudrillard, William
Bevis, Homi Bhabha, Michel Butor, Helene Cixous, Erik Cohen, Michel
de Certeau, Wayne Franklin, Paul Fussell, Farah Jasmine Griffin,
Caren Kaplan, Eric Leed, Dean MacCannell, Doreen Massey, Carl
Pedersen, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, Mary Louise Pratt, R.
Radhakrishnan, Edward W. Said, and Thayer Scudder"
Travel, movement, mobility--these are some of the essential
activities in human life. Whether we travel to foreign lands or
just across the city, we all journey, and from our journeying we
shape ourselves, our history, and the stories we tell.
In essays written by some of the most respected contemporary
scholars, this anthology brings together some of the best informed
convictions about travel. Travel, so essential to human life, is a
complex matter that encompasses a variety of travel
experiences--family vacation, political exile, exploration of
distant lands, immigration, mundane shopping trips. Likewise, as
the essays in the collection demonstrate, discussion of travel
crosses a range of personal and theoretical perspectives--from the
postmodern sensibility of Jean Baudrillard to R. Radhakrishnan's
explanation to his son of what it means for Indians to live in the
United States. As the field of travel itself "travels" across
academic and theoretical boundaries, it brings together sociology,
anthropology, geography, history, psychology, and literary
criticism.
Recognizing that multidimensional quality of travel, this book
gathers essays that represent various travel experiences and
approaches to discussing them. Mapping out definitions of travel,
the collection includes essays on tourism and travel writing, on
modern globalization and the diaspora, on immigration, migration,
and forced relocation. "Defining Travel" also highlights American
experiences of mobility by including essays on Native Americans and
early contact with the New World, as well as the massive migration
of African Americans to northern cities.
Running throughout the essays are sometimes conflicting
discussions about what constitutes travel and the homesite, the
role of travel, knowledge, and power, especially when travel is
accompanied by imperialistic motives.
Here readers truly will discover that the essence of human life
is wayfaring.
Susan L. Roberson, an assistant professor of English at Alabama
State University in Montgomery, is the editor of "Women, America,
and Movement: Narratives of Relocation" and author of "Emerson in
His Sermons: A Man-Made Self." "
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