Manchester University Press
2 Modern travel, medieval places
Abstract
Three focuses of British travel writing from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries were natural history, science, and recreation. Throughout this period and often independently of one another, widely separated writers on these topics utilised a set of consistent yet contradictory images to represent their experiences. In explicit detail they described beauty but also filth, and dangers to which they responded with expressions of awe, uncertainty, and disgust. From these contradictions emerge coherent ways to look at the modern world – especially the contrasts between Britain and Scandinavia – as well as to remember the world from which it developed. The collective impact of replicated tropes rendered visits to the modern-day Nordic regions as rides on a time machine to the British medieval past.
Abstract
Three focuses of British travel writing from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries were natural history, science, and recreation. Throughout this period and often independently of one another, widely separated writers on these topics utilised a set of consistent yet contradictory images to represent their experiences. In explicit detail they described beauty but also filth, and dangers to which they responded with expressions of awe, uncertainty, and disgust. From these contradictions emerge coherent ways to look at the modern world – especially the contrasts between Britain and Scandinavia – as well as to remember the world from which it developed. The collective impact of replicated tropes rendered visits to the modern-day Nordic regions as rides on a time machine to the British medieval past.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication iv
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- 1 The spectacle of history 1
- 2 Modern travel, medieval places 25
- 3 Ethnography and heritage 51
- 4 An open-air museum 87
- 5 Stories that make things real 115
- 6 Narrative, memory, meaning 145
- Bibliography 166
- Index 185
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication iv
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- 1 The spectacle of history 1
- 2 Modern travel, medieval places 25
- 3 Ethnography and heritage 51
- 4 An open-air museum 87
- 5 Stories that make things real 115
- 6 Narrative, memory, meaning 145
- Bibliography 166
- Index 185
