The Journey: A Cultural Adventure

Abstract

As a form of relationship with time and space, travel has been present in literature since ancient times. Travel literature is considered as such when the traveler also displays his or her writing side and provides his or her story, without diminishing its informative content, following a structure in which the narrative style and the use of stylistic devices bring the text closer to literature than to a primarily informative discourse. If the nature of travel is diverse, no less diverse is the typology of writers who recount their travels, or their non-travels: that is the case of «armchair travelers» like John Mandeville, or like Frederick Marryat who, in How to Write a Travel Book (1840), found the formula for creating a travel book: interweaving the factual and the fictional with encyclopedic discourse, cultural anthropology, and the writing of the self. Some modern travelers strive to rediscover the landscapes of their memory, like Julio Llamazares in El río del olvido (1990), while other authors, such as Claudio Magris (El Danubio, 1986) or Javier Reverte (Corazón de Ulises, 1999), are more interested in the literature, music, or arts of the country they visit, rather than in geographical, anthropological, or religious aspects. Urban space also becomes a travel destination, turning into an adventure in cultural knowledge, or in getting closer to others, as is the case with Por la ruta de la memoria (1992), by Manuel Vicent.