The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing

To what extent do bestselling travel books, such as those by Paul <br/>Theroux, Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin and Michael Palin, tell us as <br/>much about world politics as newspaper articles, policy documents and <br/>press releases? Debbie Lisle argues that the formulations of genre, <br/>identity, geopolitics and history at work in contemporary travel writing <br/>are increasingly at odds with a cosmopolitan and multicultural world in <br/>which ‘everybody travels’. Despite the forces of globalisation, common <br/>stereotypes about ‘foreignness’ continue to shape the experience of <br/>modern travel. The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing is <br/>concerned with the way contemporary travelogues engage with, and try <br/>to resolve, familiar struggles in global politics such as the protection of <br/>human rights, the promotion of democracy, the management of <br/>equality within multiculturalism and the reduction of inequality. This is <br/>a thoroughly interdisciplinary book that draws from international <br/>relations, literary theory, political theory, geography, anthropology and <br/>history.