The Importance Of Travel Writing

One does not have to travel far to know oneself. Travel can be introspective, but being introspective is not a prerequisite for being a travel writer. Authors have created works that fit into the category of travel writing but not into the category of memoir - providing an unbiased, rather than a subjective, account of travel. The question of if a contest should add a travel writing section isn 't a question so much of if they should rather than in what it is that separates travel writing from a memoir and / or a scientific account. The discussion of memoir and travel writing can be summed up in one sentence: not all memoir is travel writing, but much of travel writing draws on aspects of memoir. It is almost impossible to go on a journey - …show more content…
Within the year, most all of the Middle East was aflame as the Arab world, enraged at seeing their Ottoman masters replaced by European ones, rebelled” (Anderson 24). This above is a valid argument - it 's difficult to feel that a piece of writing is well-founded and legitimate as a travel writing piece when it is simply historically based and not based on personal experience, but whether it should be banned from the genre because of this is an altogether different discussion.
Travel writing allows a reader to gain a deeper perspective into another culture usually from a firsthand account, allowing them a deeper understanding than might be gained on the internet or flipping through a travel magazine. As Jenny Diski so aptly points out in “Skating to Antarctica,
“I wondered, too, whether it was possible to experience any-thing fresh any more. If there was a moment of marvelling, it was in the amazing closeness of the reality to what I had already seen in other media (Diski …show more content…
The beauty inherent in travel writing is that travel writing doesn’t have to include autobiographical elements. It has, however, become more popular to include these aspects in travel writing. Travel writing has undergone quite a transition, as it used to be viewed as a genre that was largely scientific and contributed to the globalization and othering of cultures. “ It also contributed to the idea that the western world was in some way superior, a delusion that continues to this day. Historically though, this has been the history of travel writing - it was mostly scientific and historical up until very recently, when it became popular to use the genre of travel writing as a form and an outlet for self