Travellers’ Tales of Wonder: Chatwin, Naipaul, Sebald

This title argues that ‘travellers’ tales of wonder’ are a vital yet unacknowledged presence in contemporary literature. Exploring travellers’ tales of wonder in contemporary literature, this study challenges a sensibility of disenchantment with travel. It reassesses travel writing as an aesthetically and ethically innovative form in contemporary international literature, and demonstrates the crucial role of wonder in the travel narratives of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, V.S. Naipaul, and W.G. Sebald. Their ‘travellers’ tales of wonder’ are read as a challenge to the hubris of thinking the world too well known, and an invitation to encounter the world – including its most troubling histories – with a sense of wonder. It reassesses the place of travel writing in literary history to argue that the genre is important as a site of aesthetic innovation and ethical engagement in contemporary literature. It demonstrates the central role of wonder in travel accounts often regarded as narratives of disenchantment. It explores the way travellers’ tales of wonder recover and renew ancient and early modern forms in approaching modern and contemporary issues.It offers new, in-depth readings of the work of three major writers, in each case drawing on as yet unpublished results of archival research.