The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing

Alfred Bendixen editor Judith Hamera editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:29th Jan '09

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The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing cover

A stimulating overview of American journeys from the eighteenth century to the present.

Travel writing has always been intimately linked with the construction of American identity. These specially-commissioned essays trace the journeys taken by writers from the pre-revolutionary period right up to the present. This Companion forms an invaluable guide for students approaching this new, important and exciting subject for the first time.Travel writing has always been intimately linked with the construction of American identity. Occupying the space between fact and fiction, it exposes cultural fault lines and reveals the changing desires and anxieties of both the traveller and the reading public. These specially-commissioned essays trace the journeys taken by writers from the pre-revolutionary period right up to the present. They examine a wide range of responses to the problems posed by landscapes found both at home and abroad, from the Mississippi and the Southwest to Europe and the Holy Land. Throughout, the contributors focus on the role played by travel writing in the definition and formulation of national identity, and consider the experiences of minority writers as well as canonical authors. This Companion forms an invaluable guide for students approaching this new, important and exciting subject for the first time.

'This is a stimulating and informative work that covers much new ground: it has certainly got me thinking and I now have a long list of titles to seek out. Apart from the book's value to literature and travel studies, students of North American history will also find this book useful.' Bob Duckett, bibliographer and former reference librarian, Bradford, UK

ISBN: 9780521861090

Dimensions: 234mm x 157mm x 18mm

Weight: 620g

314 pages