| 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 |
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.