INSTYTUT LITERATUROZNAWSTWA I JĘZYKOZNAWSTWA

Studia Filologiczne UJK

Philological Studies

ISSN 2300-5459 e-ISSN 2450-0380

 

 

Author Eva Opperman
Title Boswell/Johnson, and Boorman/McGregor, and the exciting Memories of Travel
Keywords subjectivity, travelogue
Pages 283-300
Full text
Volume 35

Summary

In this contribution, I investigate how James Boswell manages to depart from the concept of the travelogue familiar in his day in order to introduce new concepts to the genre: exciting tales from flashbulb memories and elements of the traveller’s special, subjective experiences. This development was supported by the influence of Sterne’s Sentimental Journey (1768) and Locke’s and Rousseau’s concepts of subjectivity. According to Voßkamp’s (1977) Haller’s (1993), and Botor’s (1999) standards, these new concepts of the travelogue made Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) a prototype for the contemporary travel report. This will be shown through a comparison with Long Way Down (2007) by Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor and examples from other travelogues by, for example, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, and Christina Dodwell.