Mapping Generic Territory: The Pedagogy and Practice of Travel Writing

Abstract

This thesis engages with travel writing at two levels: pedagogically and practically. It discusses at length, the unique configuration of travel writing’s literary currencies and conventions. Primary linguistic data were collected from travel texts collated within a portfolio of the researcher’s own negotiated and sustained practice as a travel writer. Within this portfolio the researcher engaged with a variety of travel text types, including a travel blog, prose and a poem. A close reading of these portfolio texts is presented, along with the introduction of the Aim, Design, Assessment (ADA) apparatus – a tool developed to aid the analysis and understanding of travel writing for both writers and commissioning editors. The findings present the following conclusions; Travel writing’s pedagogy does inform the practice, by way of its generic currencies and their inclusion within a travel writer’s professional practice. Secondly, that the ADA apparatus is a tool that the practitioner has applied here with measurable success in changing and developing both her writing and her attention to language. Within its conclusions, the thesis reflects on the researcher’s ResM Travel Writing degree and provides suggestions of how the genre can be taught academically. It documents a set of practices that the researcher evolved to professionalise her own travel writing. This positions the work within the discipline of applied research, where the science of academic research disclosures can be recycled into the pedagogic education and professional practice of travel writing. Examining travel writing from an interdisciplinary perspective (Tourism Knowledge, Design & Literary Studies) it also contributes to the volume of new tourism knowledge and introduces travel writing’s role as a toureme conduit.