AH 655: SPACES AND PRACTICES OF DISPLAYING THE PAST

Elsner, J. (1999). Introduction. In Voyages and visions: Towards a cultural history of travel. London:
Reaktion Books.

Traveling in Search of the Past:

Introduction starts with Richard Burtons, romantic fascination with cultural difference
expressing an awareness of what Europeans, by becoming civilized, had denied within
themselves and left behind; expressing the condition of secular modernity
The introduction explores the genesis of the pilgrimage model in European culture that
begins with the co-existence of sceptical and religious travel in Graeco-Roman
Antiquity.
Be it Homers Odyssey or Apollonius written by Philostratus, travel was path to wisdom
and salvation. The texts have been fictionalized and became mythical narratives.
Christian travelling tradition is deeply rooted with Antiquity. e.g. mythologizing process
was admittedly borrowed by late Antiquity.
In religious ideal, the history of travel is a history of loss- met with guilt, hope and
nostalgia.
The idea of crusade was welcomed enthusiastically by a pius laity, not because they stood
to gain materially but rather because it allowed them to seek salvation without
abandoning their military way of life.
Crusader had remarkable lack of ethnographic curiosity, William Tyre and Gerald of
Wales were the few who experienced living with a mixed ethnic heritage and showed
curiosity for alien customs in travel writing.
The recapture of city of Jerusalem by Saladin and continuous failed attempts witness an
evolution of Western idea of love: the courtly love in the form of sublimated travel.
14th century was a period of crisis in military, economic and feudal institutions hence
empiricism in travel literature served both as symbolic expression as well as alternative
source for narrative truth.
... their primarily religious aim, missionary activities actually stimulated the creation of
an empirical, rather than a spiritual, travel literature.
Dante was self-reflective poet, a new perception born of grieving love which was a
source for spiritual pilgrimage
Political reportage leading to travelers as information gatherers. By 16th century, nonBiblical religions including Islam were studied.
Travels of first Marco Polo and Columbus widen the spheres of geographical
imagination.
Despite of the mistrusts in Polo and Rustichello travel narratives, they represent
important novelty, a reliability of knowledge, a kind of science of nature and mankind.
The prestige of exotic traveller is more important than the simple pilgrim, hence
Christian Humanists response, esp. Erasmus who condemn pilgrimage as a waste of
time; replacing religious journey with the humanizing tendencies e.g. understanding of
human psychology and circumstances.
By Nida Ahmed (2049435)
Masters student in Architectural history

AH 655: SPACES AND PRACTICES OF DISPLAYING THE PAST

Elsner, J. (1999). Introduction. In Voyages and visions: Towards a cultural history of travel. London:
Reaktion Books.

Imperial influences in those travel narratives generated by colonial experience.,

combined universalist claims with a national focus.
The Grand Tour was an important part of the elites education. For example: The
Complete Gentleman of 1622 by Henry Peacham explains how travel teaches oneself
knowledge of himself and settles his affection more sure to his own country.
Gave birth to new cosmopolitan values- a civil progress founded upon criticism,
tolerance and rationality against images of barbarism and despotism; also creating new
imperialism, national hierarchies and historical particularism.
The emphasis on scientific precision created a virtual religion of empiricism
Alexander von Humboldt reflects, his desire for a global, meaningful scientific vision,
decisively married empirical observation with imaginative speculation.
Edward Saids Orientalism makes a distinction between a British attitude of imperial
surveying and French sense of imperial loss after Napoleons defeat.
The process of decolonization resulted in new methods of reading the unknown.
In 1969, landing of Moon, opened new frontiers of hope for future conquests.
According to Edward James, mythical is in essence more important than practical.
Travellers quest, wisdom, salvation all eventually collapse only their tales serve to build,
reinforce and question these paradigms. The persistence of desire remains in the legacy of
fragments.

By Nida Ahmed (2049435)

Masters student in Architectural history