Routledge Handbook of Borders and Tourism

Abstract

Often common sense and philosophy assume that human imaginaries begin in human immobility, so the ground of our imagined world is a fixed location. Yet, the oldest of human stories concern the relationship between mobility and immobility, and attempt to negotiate between “Here” and “Elsewhere”. The author presents a typology of these “travellers’ tales” that address human movement, as a tool to analyse their ontological and political significance in accommodating Here and Elsewhere. The author’s account provides five (not mutually exclusive) types: travel as “challenge”, “discovery”, “reconfiguration”, “pilgrimage”, and “commentary”. These types appear in a loosely progressive historical order. For example, the oldest narratives present a protagonist able to conquer the dangers of Elsewhere. Conversely, many long-surviving narratives see Elsewhere as a terrain of discovery, often supported by an assumption of universality—that is, that the same power (typically one God) reigns over both Here and Elsewhere. Some narratives actively reconfigure the world in the service of such a power. Narratives of pilgrimage and commentary seek enlightenment or a standpoint to judge in the protagonist’s travels. The chapter closes with some observations about how such narratives can shape the national politics of bordering.

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