Scholarly record

THE REPRESENTATION OF AFRICAN CULTURE AND LIFESTYLE IN MODERN AMERICAN AND LATVIAN TRAVELOGUES: “DARK” OR EXOTIC CONTINENT

D. Ozola, S. Meskova

Abstract

The representation of various geographical places and topographical peculiarities is a typical feature of the travelogue genre. However, the reception of one and the same space could be depicted in travel literature in a variety of ways. Such a diversity of images appears due to existing stereotypes opposing each author’s reception and interpretation of the places visited. Besides, the same place can also acquire various representations in different centuries and due to different historical events and paradigms. The image of Africa frequently appears in travel literature of many cultures. The African continent became popular by travellers and travel writers worldwide centuries ago due to its weird nature and exotic cultures. The reception of African countries by contemporary travel writers is also contradictory: some travelogues represent the exotic and bright side of this mysterious continent, while other travel texts highlight the dark and miserable side of it. In the frames of the contemporary critical tradition the study of travel narratives synthesizes various methodologies of different literary schools with an aim to excerpt the brightest semantic oppositions of travelogues. The present research is the study of several American and Latvian travel texts applying three basic methods: 1. anthropologic method is used to consider the travelogues under analysis in the geopolitical and social-economic discourse; 2. structurally-semiotic method is used to analyse the main typological features of travel narratives, focusing on such binary oppositions typical for travelogues as self vs the other, native vs foreign / exotic, etc.; 3. comparative method is used for the comparative analysis of African space reception by American and Latvian travel writers. Thus, the aim of the present article is to reveal, whether the stereotypes concerning the “darkness” of the African space, culture and lifestyle still appear in the works of contemporary American and Latvian travel writers.

Publication details

Back to publication list