Abstract
This introduction provides a working theory for the subsequent chapters. It distinguishes three paradigms that arguably underpin both the experience of travel and the literary representation of the experience: the shaping of identity, the exploration of identity and the imparting of identity. The first stems from the non-essentialist precepts of empiricism—in particular, John Locke’s thought—which indicated that the travelling subject becomes a new person on his or her return. In contrast, the second category implies an essentialist search for the true self that is facilitated by the experience of the road. Home-coming is here tantamount to greater self-knowledge, which relates the concept to the idea of circular spiritual journey as present in the Christian allegorical tradition, especially in the archetype of the Prodigal Son. Finally, the imparting of identity is presented here as a form of “identity labelling”, subjective and biased, which characterises the representative politics of travel discourse, invariably attempting to describe the people and places encountered on the road.
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Lipski, J. (2018). Travel and Identity: An Introduction. In: Lipski, J. (eds) Travel and Identity: Studies in Literature, Culture and Language. Second Language Learning and Teaching(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74021-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74021-8_1
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