Travel Writing: Romantics to Newspaper
After reading various works from Romantic travel writers such as Gilpin, Wordsworth, Goethe and others, I was interested in how their writings' conventions have changed when a different medium is used. Every Saturday the local newspaper, The Edmonton Journal, has a section that is strictly dedicated to travel destinations and topics pertaining to travel. Appropriately named "Travel," this section describes exotic locations for tourist and travelers. Its articles contrast the Romantics' description of the environment by having less emphasis on the picturesque and sublime, more focus on historical background, and greater detail in the lives of people living there. I believe that these differences are credited largely to one factor; the writing's medium influences what is being stressed as the purpose of the writer is different.
Travel articles focus largely on describing nature only in terms of basic description. When referencing a scene with specific characteristics (such as cliffs, waterfalls or mountains) the Romantic writer describes the scene as if the reader has very little experience or expectation for what the scene should look like. The result is often elaborate description after elaborate description. Newspaper travel sections do not concern themselves with such sensory description near the same extent for a number of reasons. The newspaper focuses less on creating imagery for the reader because of the increase in availability to travel, images of the picturesque and sublime on television and movies, and the presence of photographs physically next to the text.
1. Nearly every article, within this section, is accompanied by a large photograph showing the landscape. By presenting the writers' description of the land next to the photograph, the article intrinsically promotes a comparison by the reader, contrasting the colourful photograph with the writer's words. If the photograph presents a landscape different from the vivid description of the travel writer (which inevitably happens with readers' mental constructs) the reader will find it hard to trust the writer in the accuracy of description. The writer wisely follows the saying that a "picture says a thousand words" and is better off letting the picture do the talking. After all, the journalist has less space and more constrictions than the novelist does.
2. The dominant concern for the travel journalist is conveying what they want in a limited space. The journalist does not have space to elaborately describe every cliff, river or valley. It is, therefore, up to the writer to assume that, with the addition of the given photographs, the reader would be able to visualize a serene waterfall or placid lake.
Both Helen Maria Williams and Lady Morgan are important representatives of the genre of Romantic travel literature. These two accounts were published more than twenty years apart, and while they regard different countries, thematic and stylistic parallels and contrasts can, not surprisingly, be established between the two works. Social and cultural commentary, as well political and historical criticism, are prominent in these two accounts. Another point of comparison is the theme of the relation of man with nature. Williams' style leans toward the sentimental tradition in travel writing; it is personalized and her perceptions tend to be mediated through the emotions. Lady Morgan's descriptions rely more on intellectual rather than emotional elements, and are often polemical, while also remaining self-consciously subjective.
New Leisure, on the other hand, does not live in a world where such images are present. He is ""prone to cursory peeps through microscopes" and is "prone to excursion- trains, art museums, periodical literature, and exciting novels.
The window was cold to the touch. The glass shimmered as the specks of sunlight danced, and Blake stood, peering out. As God put his head to the window, at once, he felt light shining through his soul. Six years old. Age ceased to define him and time ceased to exist. Silence seeped into every crevice of the room, and slowly, as the awe of the vision engulfed him, he felt the gates slowly open. His thoughts grew fluid, unrestrained, and almost chaotic. An untouched imagination had been liberated, and soon, the world around him transformed into one of magnificence and wonder. His childish naivety cloaked the flaws and turbulence of London, and the imagination became, to Blake, the body of God. The darkness lingering in the corners of London slowly became light. Years passed by, slowly fading into wisps of the past, and the blanket of innocence deteriorated as reality blurred the clarity of childhood.
" You travel and see what the camera saw. The wonder of the human mind, heart, wit, and instinct... You might catch yourself saying, 'I'm not a stranger here.'" John Mahtesian
He appeals to the reader’s sense of humor and imagery. He almost immediately attracts the audience by an obscure account of his landscape in the second sentence.
They both have beautiful landscapes as well as broad varieties of food that further communicate their culture. When described in detail, a reader can hear the sounds of the country, see the landscape of the country, and even taste the foods of the country. This kind of descriptive language can awaken a reader’s many senses and can be used in many different ways to show or emphasize a wide variety of things, such as how a character is feeling and how that might affect the way in which they will react to something. In Duong Thu Huong’s compelling novel Paradise of the Blind, the use of imagery through weather, landscape, and colors amplifies the reader’s understanding of the character’s actions and emotions throughout the fiction
There are not many options for a steady career in Travel Photography. Don’t let that discourage you. As there are many people who may classify this kind of photography as more of a hobby rather than an “actual” career. Becoming a steady Travel Photographer is a difficult job, some may say even close to “impossible.”
Measuring A Small Place against these three benchmarks reveals that the work is deceptively disguised to deliver a specific message. Kincaid’s work, often critical of the tourist, is ineffective as a typical travel broacher, or work of travel literature. However, it is successful
The Beauty of Wanderlust By Francesca Pabale Whether for the purpose of business or pleasure, there are many reasons as to why traveling draws out curiosity to many individuals. Noted as a novelist of classic literature, Mark Twain states in The Innocents Abroad: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime”(Twain 243). Initially people who read this line, believe that this statement presents a class of arrogance rather than truth.
Thus, “photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure” (Sontag 131). The art of photography is not only a soothing tool, but the power of self-productivity without having the thoughts of worry blocking someone’s mind. In this case, tourism is a modern day, popular example that Sontag uses where “photography develops in tandem” (Sontag 131). Tourism requires a lot of people to come out of their shell and encounter new habitats for a short period of time.
My adventurous attitude has led me on a photographic exploration around the world. My interest in visual documentation emerged at the age of seventeen during a solo trip to India, where I lived with a family in the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges River for two months. In India, I quickly learned that photography was the best mean for me to discover the world around me. Through photography, I was able to sort all the chaos of the world into images that bring clarity to life. Above all, it became my catalyst to engage with the world. I found myself reaching far beyond my comfort zone to translate the world as I saw it through my
In contemporary landscape design, narratives have become a common intention for landscape architects. There are always questions of what makes a landscape meaningful and how is meaning found in the landscape. This may then raise confusions about what is the actual role of landscape narratives and how they should be understand and conceived. Although the term landscape narratives “designates the interplay and mutual relationship between story and place, they are not simply considered in terms of literal storytelling that is expressed and controlled by clear references to the histories, biographies, local emblems or other textural forms of a place. Beyond the communication of a local sense of place and the extension of the content of landscape expression, both landscape and narrative have great potentials and much wider significance that need to be studied and further explored.
I love traveling, who doesn’t like that by the way? I’ve already been to 7 destinations in the span of 3 months this year and going to different places to chase adventure has no end in mind yet. I’m grateful for having lovely family relatives who travel a lot and tag me along, friends from different parts of the country who let me stay with them for a while but most of the time, I travel out of style, mostly a DIY trip, never with a fancy tour package. I’d like to believe that I’m fairly good now at budgeting stuff when it comes to going on vacation and visiting places.
Background The travel and tourism industry is one of the leading growing sectors in the UK and across the globe. The development of this industry is closely interconnected to the broader technological and socio-economic changes, which are evolving continuously, and are consistently changing the nature of supply and demand in the travel and tourism industry. Tourism has attracted a significant number of attention during the last decade, with studies being conducted on a diverse and broad range of topics, which includes marketing and advertising tourism in various cities across the globe (Pearce, 2001, 926). Distribution is one of the most crucial factors in the hospitality, travel and tourism sectors’ ability to acquire higher market share, achieve greater levels of profitable revenue, and to perform at an acceptable level in terms of financial returns. Majority of the research, specifically in the field of marketing, has been related to the components of promoting a place and selling the city (Levy & Matos 2002, 241; Law, 2002, 5).
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience”, Eleanor Roosevelt once said. However, most people have a completely different idea of what their life should be. From cradle to grave, they are convinced that life should be a routine. They receive higher education, get hired on work, get married and have children and think that it is a primary purpose of their lives. Every morning, they see their own grey faces in the mirror and their melancholy is like decease: it is airborne and it infects souls of millions of others. The world is so beautiful around us, it is just necessary to look around. However, everybody’s eyes are busy looking at their cell phones. Today’s hectic