Reclaiming Travel
- ISBN-10
- 0822375591
- ISBN-13
- 9780822375593
- Category
- Travel
- Pages
- 168
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-03-20
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Authors
- Ilan Stavans, Joshua Ellison
Description
Based on a controversial opinion piece originally published in the New York Times, Reclaiming Travel is a provocative meditation on the meaning of travel from ancient times to the twenty-first century. Ilan Stavans and Joshua Ellison seek to understand why we travel and what has come to be missing from our contemporary understanding of travel. Engaging with canonical and contemporary texts, they explore the differences between travel and tourism, the relationship between travel and memory, the genre of travel writing, and the power of mapmaking, Stavans and Ellison call for a rethinking of the art of travel, which they define as a transformative quest that gives us deeper access to ourselves. Tourism, Stavans and Ellison argue, is inauthentic, choreographed, sterile, shallow, and rooted in colonialism. They critique theme parks and kitsch tourism, such as the shantytown hotels in South Africa where guests stay in shacks made of corrugated metal and cardboard yet have plenty of food, water and space. Tourists, they assert, are merely content with escapism, thrill seeking, or obsessively snapping photographs. Resisting simple moralizing, the authors also remind us that people don’t divide neatly into crude categories like travelers and tourists. They provoke us to reflect on the opportunities and perils in our own habits. In this powerful manifesto, Stavans and Ellison argue that travel should be an art through which our restlessness finds expression—a search for meaning not only in our own lives but also in the lives of others. It is not about the destination; rather, travel is about loss, disorientation, and discovering our place in the universe.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South
By William Bruce WheelerIn the early 1970s the Boeing Corporation had sent planners to the region for the purpose of building a new city , to be named Timberlake , near the Tellico ...
-
Britannia in Brief: The Scoop on All Things British
By Leslie Banker, William MullinsRobbie Williams Like Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams got his start in a boy band then parlayed that success into something much bigger.
-
New England, 1999
By Wayne Curtis, Herbert B. Livesey, Marie MorrisFrost lived in a cabin on a farm across the road for 23 summers . ... but it's also open to the public at rates of about half what you'd pay at Killington .
-
Frommer's New England 2003
By Wayne Curtis, Marie Morris, Laura M. ReckfordYou'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert...
-
Frommer's? New England 2002
By Wayne Curtis, Marie Morris, Laura M. Reckford"Using the expertise of knowledgeable travel writers and editors, Frommer's New England is stuffed like a turkey, with slivers of information spilling out as soon as you open the cover.Even...
-
The Rough Guide to Peru
By Sara Humphreys, Steph Dyson, Todd ObolskyS/620 01 446 9414, HI Hostel Lima Casimiro Ulloa 328 hihostels.com; map. A great deal, this is the top-rated HI hostel in the capital.
-
Chicago - Frommer's Travel Guides
By Todd A. SavageThe most authoritative, easy-to-use guide a traveller can buy
-
French By Heart: An American Family's Adventures in La Belle France
By Rebecca S. RamseyIn a year or so, y'a.ll will move back home andTodd'll buy you some big house in Crawford Creek and you're ... But what is the deal with hotel rooms here?
-
Sons of Thunder
By James TimberlakeBook One: Sons of Thunder is the first of two books based on one summers 2000 mile trek across southern Europe.
-
Food Artisans of Alberta: Your Trail Guide to the Best Locally Crafted Fare
By Karen Anderson, Matilde Sanchez-TurriOwners J.P. Fortin and Danielle Black Fortin have a base camp and café in Capstone at Riverlands in Red Deer. Check them out at pursuitadventures.ca.