the time of Travel

Travel

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”

- Jack Kerouac, On the Road -

Why do people travel?

Why did people travel?

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Survival and migra-ons Explora-ons and discoveries Commerce Poli-cal expansion Pilgrimages and missionaries 16yh century’s Grand Tour Leisure

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Holidays To experience new cultures Necessity or work To learn new language Take a gap-­‐year To challenge yourself To find yourself

Jonathan Swift •

Jonathan Swi+ (1667-­‐1745) belongs to the Augustan Age.

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He was an Irish writer, and in 1694 became an Anglican priest. In 1720 SwiQ, with Alexander Pope and John Gay created a group of Tory’s sa-rists: the Scriblerians.

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In his novel, in par-cular in Gulliver’s Travel, he cri-cises poli-cians, English provincialism and it is a sa-re of man’s hypocrisy, vanity and cruelty.

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For long -me it was considered like a children's fable because of the fantas-c elements, but in truth it is a modern criEcs of society wonderfully hidden by him.

Gulliver’s Travel Ø Jonathan SwiQ masterpiece was Gulliver’s Travel, a saErical novel. Ø It is divided into 4 parts. Write in 3° person, the hero is a ship’s surgeon, Lemuel Gulliver, belonging at middle class. Ø He undergoes a series of misadventures who brings him to discover new weird worlds and during his trip he understands that the human being is false and wretched. Ø When he finally arrives at home by his wife and his family he is disgusted by their human behaviours.

IllustraEon by Tony Wolf

Samuel Taylor Coleridge •

Coleridge (1772-­‐1834) was a Roman-c poet. Born in Devon, he was friend of William Wordsworth and together writes the Lyrical Ballads.

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He was one of the cursed poets like Charles Baudelaire who even writes about the Albatross in “Les Fleurs du Mal”.

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In his poem “the Rime of the Ancient Mariner” he treated “Biblical themes” like life, death and life aQer death.

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His wri-ngs are prone to fantasy. He is the poet of: supernatural, figure of speech and imaginaEon.

The Rime of an Ancient Mariner This is a long poem, divided into 7 parts, each of them is introduced by a summary of the previous part. It is the opening poem of Lyrical Ballads collec-on.

It is told by the mariner himself.

It talks the story of a cursed mariner who killed an Albatross. The crew was very angry but then they forgive him, because It was an horrible act and then a course fell on the ship.

The aim of the mariner is to teach other to respect and love all nature’s creatures.

The Albatross is a symbol of freedom.

Killing him is an act against Natural Laws and so against God.

The story is full of personifica-on and even, talks about life and death and the connec-on between them. At the end appears death's personifica-on like a mysterious woman who punishes all of the crew, because they have forgiven the mariner .

Engravings by Gustave Dorè

Alfred Tennyson •

Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire in 1809. In his poem he is par-cularly amazed by the -me and the death, some-mes connected by each other. He was a Victorian writer.

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He is fascinated by Greek mythology and medieval tradi-on in par-cular King Arthur’s stories.

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In 1850 he was proclaimed Poet Laureate, and he had more fame than Wordsworth. He had some famous friends like Queen Victoria and was appointed Sir by her. Fond to King Arthur and the knights of the round table’s stories he wrote the famous but not really known: Lady of Shalog.

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When he wrote the Ulysses, the main sources were from the Homer’s epic poem (Odyssey) and from Dante’s Inferno. Odyssey talks about the voyage of Odysseus (La-n name of Ulysses) from the Trojan war to his return to Ithaca, his home, by his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.

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The major point is the ques-on: there is life a+er death? In this point of view Tennyson was inspired by Dante. He wants to tell about an op-mism in a beger world, probably death could be this world.

Ulysses The poem is wrigen like a dramaEc monologue, and it has blank verse.

He recounts the journey of Odysseus to return home. Arrived at home is happy to see his family, but soon realizes that it can not help but travel. He feel himself restless and bored and he will not have a sedentary existence. He want to have the triumphs of his past once more again.

So he is determinate to start a new voyage to an unknown des-na-on.

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In the last lines of the poem the author reflects on the nature of heroism.

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The phrase” to seek a newer world” is linked to the BriEsh Empire expansionism.

John William Waterhouse Mermaid -­‐ 1901

Bruce Chatwin •

Bruce Chatwin (1949-­‐1989) belongs to the Contemporary Age. He died young aQer contrac-ng AIDS.

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Unlike other authors, he made the journey, he is the protagonist of his wri-ngs, the others were limited to only travel with their imaginaEon, without leaving home.

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His masterpiece is his first book, published in 1977: in Patagonia. He loved nomadic life and especially loved travel, he was in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America.

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In his notebook’s travel took note of whatever was happening to him: who he met, places visited, languages, colors and so on...

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The texts are very simply and easy to read and have not a complicated language. OQen the narra-on in his books is interrupted by citaEons from Dante, Coleridge, Darwin, Poe, Shakespeare…

In Patagonia This book is a mix of some modes of wri-ng, from autobiography to mythology… it recounts Cathwin’s journey to the land “at the end of the world” Patagonia, where he always wanted to go. The reasons of this travel were two.

First he wanted to search another piece of skin of a prehistoric animal, belongs to his grandmother but then gone lost. Second reasons is connected to his childhood: when he was scared by Cold War who prospect the total world destruc-on, and so he wants to discover a safe place where living hide.

Chatwin didn’t find the piece of skin he wanted and realises that it was a pretext for travelling in Patagonia.