1. Travel along the Silk Roads

Panel convenor: Ildikó Bellér-Hann, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

The Silk Roads have long been a symbol of cultural exchange in Eurasia.  They provide a convenient metaphor for interconnectedness across imperial or national boundaries more generally. While research on the Silk Roads typically focuses on the processes and consequences of social, economic, religious and cultural exchanges in a transnational framework, this panel emphasizes travel and its literary representations.  Over the centuries the macro-region of Central Eurasia (used here in a loose and inclusive sense), attracted countless visitors from all directions. It gave rise to a large body of travel writing, much of which has received little attention hitherto. By taking the Eurasian landmass as our framework and focusing on its landlocked centre, and by considering narratives authored by travelers coming from all directions, we explicitly acknowledge the aim of the conference to transcend the Europe-Asia dichotomy.  

We invite papers exploring the narrative representation of travel in any period, regardless of whether it has been produced by local people themselves travelling within their own region or by visitors from other parts of the landmass.  We hope for a multi-disciplinary panel that will cover a good range of narrative representations of travel to and within Central Eurasia. Possible foci include:

• the relationship between narrative tropes and the motivations for travel
  • political involvement/engagement (the representation of the imperialist/colonial mindset as well as colonial anxiety)
  • religious zeal (pilgrim- or missionary-authored accounts)
  • scholarly  enterprise (e.g.) accounts authored by archaeologists, geographers, ethnographers, linguists)
  • adventure
• the intersections of power, knowledge and authority in travel writing
• literary travelogues (travel as art, landscape, the aesthetics of travel, imaginary travel, escapist fantasies etc.)
• the relationship between travel writing and autobiography (the role of subjectivity)
• travel narratives as sites where identity, alterity and cultural diversity are explored
• gender and travel writing

Attention may be given to comparisons with the author’s native society and/or between different settings accessed through travel.  The aim is to explore the complex interconnectedness between power relations and travel and narrative strategies. While acknowledging the impact of the paradigms of Orientalism and postcolonial studies, the aim is to move beyond them through paying equal attention to the agency and narrative strategies of non-Western travelers.