Talk:Travel literature
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[edit] Style of prose
I just merged this article with the contents of Travelogue per WP:DA, and while it's heart-warming to read so passionate prose about travel literature, the style of some parts of the article is unencyclopedic (too much praise, not enough facts). Could someone familiar with English travel literature go over this? Phils 15:18, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Outdoor literature
I've created a new article on Outdoor literature to handle adventure, exploration, natural history and environmental literature. Travel literature is more about civilization and culture while outdoor literature is more about the rest. I plan to move a lot of the material here, over to there, and am open to discussion/thoughts. Stbalbach 01:58, 1 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] The List below the text
Is a dogs breakfast, annoying to say the least not even alpha order, anyone prepared to help alpha order it? vcxlor 11:23, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
- It really should be in chronological order like outdoor literature to follow the development of the genre, along with a/the major work by each author. --Stbalbach 18:07, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
-Whats more, the most important travel writers of all time, laurie lee, is missing! (unsigned by a once ionly contributor)
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- Chronological is a good idea indeed - but in most cases the writers or works are not dated in the list, quite a job by looksSatuSuro 16:21, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] History
Should't Herodotus or other Greek and Latin writers be mentioned as having written travel literature before Petrarch ? I don't believe that travel literature starts with the late Middle Ages.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.16.198.39 (talk • contribs) .
- Yes. The article is patchy. I'm doing some research on it and plan to do some upgrades in the future. -- Stbalbach 01:23, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
And, er, what about William of Rubruck??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Rubruck And he had a predecessor, John of Plano Carpino, who also wrote a history of his travels to the Mongols, which is also an excellently accurate and interesting work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Pian_del_Carpine
- yeah there are a few thousand notable travel authors, in fact a three volume encyclopedia on the topic. -- Stbalbach 21:21, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] 19th C
Please do not forget one of the most important historical periods of the travel book is the 19th century and in particular "Around the World" trips and those to the "Orient". In particular there is an entire subgenra of books devoted entirely to Japan. There are writers like Bayard Taylor that are so well known as to become "experts" who edit later books on the topic of Japan. This period really starts at 1853 the the Perry Expedition and grinds to a halt in 1936 when we began to fight the Japanese in mainland China and tourism dropped off. There are hundred of books on this one topic and many are excellent examples. However there are travel books of the "Orient" in Portugese and Dutch back to the mid 15th century albeit rare.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.186.26.182 (talk • contribs).
- True. Probably the best resource available right now is the 3-volume Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia, noted in the references section. This is a tiny Wikipedia article on a topic that fills thousands of printed encyclopedia pages and 10s of thousands of works and authors and sub-genres. -- Stbalbach 20:30, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Hodoeporics?
When I studied Comparative Literature at university we were used to refer to Travel Literature as Hodoeporics. However this Greek term is not as widespread as its synonym "Travel Literature". Would it still be worth mentioning in the article? Hroswith 14:35, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
- Yes sure. Any history of the terms usage would be great if you happen to know. Google Books shows it to be very uncommon, only in recent books, nothing in older works - it is also not in the OED which is a bad sign - kind of looks like a term used only very recently, might even be an academic neologism - nothing from 19th C texts (who often used Greek terms). I'll add a redirect in case one is not there. -- Stbalbach 15:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
