From pilgrimage to exploration: The image of the journey in nonfictional travel narratives of the English tradition, A.D. 1000-1625.

This dissertation traces the development of the structural motif of the journey in English non-fictional travel narratives from approximately A.D. 1000-1625. These years encompass two great journeying movements: medieval pilgrimage (and its martial extension, the Crusade) and the New World exploratory movement of the Renaissance. It analyzes narratives either written by English people, or translated into English before 1625. Works were chosen for treatment either because of their intrinsic literary or thematic interest, their contemporary popularity, or their literary historical significance. The analysis focuses on the interaction of literary culture with the wider culture around it. These writings influenced authors in traditional literary genres of the period, and reflect attitudes toward journeying in popular culture as well--hopes and fears about travel, distant places, and exotic peoples. This study examines the structures and contents of various narratives in order to understand what possible intentions narrators and editors might have had, as expressed in their works; to see what possible audience reactions they might have wanted to get (and using other documents and analyses, to see if they succeeded); to analyze whether these writings reflect actual states of affairs the narrators might have encountered; and, as appropriate, to glance at the importance of these works in their contemporary popular culture. It observes the cultural practices of pilgrimage and exploration, using the selected group of documents as primary data. It examines the specific ways that writing about travel changes between the medieval and Renaissance periods in England, and speculates about the importance of certain travel-related images contained in this writing. The analysis also pays special attention to reading strategies appropriate for this primary material. By closely observing specific contents and structures (taking the historical context into account) the modern reader can identify patterns of significance and descriptive technique among and within works. Close reading, as a technique of analysis, describes the ways movement through space is invested with meaning for individual works, and demonstrates the existence of a wider cultural pattern.PhDEnglish Language and LiteratureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103283/1/9023562.pdfDescription of 9023562.pdf : Restricted to UM users only