Travel Writing and the Natural World, 1768-1840
Taking as a starting point the parallel occurrence of Cook's Pacific voyages, the development of natural history, scenic tourism in Britain, and romantic travel in Europe, this book argues that the effect of these practices was the production of nature as an abstract space and that the genre of travel writing had a central role in reproducing it.
PAUL SMETHURST is Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses in travel writing, fictions of globalization and literature and the environment. As well as publications on postmodernism and contemporary fiction, he has published widely on travel writing, and is presently completing a book on the cultural history of the bicycle.