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To what extent do best-selling travel books, such as those by Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Bruce Chatwin and Michael Palin, tell us as much about world politics as newspaper articles, policy documents and press releases? Debbie Lisle argues that the formulations of genre, identity, geopolitics and history at work in contemporary travel writing are increasingly at odds with a cosmopolitan and multicultural world in which 'everybody travels'. Despite the forces of globalization, common stereotypes about 'foreignness' continue to shape the experience of modern travel. The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing, first published in 2006, is concerned with the way contemporary travelogues engage with, and try to resolve, familiar struggles about global politics such as the protection of human rights, the promotion of democracy, the management of equality within multiculturalism and the reduction of inequality. This is a thoroughly interdisciplinary book that draws from international relations, literary theory, political theory, geography, anthropology and history 1. Introduction : the global imaginary of contemporary travel writing -- 2. Between fact and fiction : the generic boundaries of travel writing -- 3. The cosmopolitan gaze : rearticulations of modern subjectivity -- 4. Civilising territory : geographies of safety and danger -- 5. Looking back : utopia, nostalgia and the myth of historical progress -- 6. Engaging the political : contemporary travel writing and the ethics of difference
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