When Jan Morris died in 2020, people from around the world praised her elegant and eloquent writing, and her extraordinary life. Her many achievements included the publication between 1966 and 1978 ...of the 'intellectual and artistic high-point of her career': the Pax Britannica trilogy charting the zenith and decline of the British Empire. The popular trilogy, which remains in print, played a key role in establishing the late twentieth-century cultural narrative that the British Empire was 'a force for good' in the world. Calling into question the boundary between history, fiction and memory, Morris draws heavily on theatrical techniques to both construct a narrative of Empire, one which is dominated by the adventures of individual imperialists, and draw attention to its fabrication. Attending closely to its mode of address, I argue that Morris's trilogy, while equivocal and, in places, critical, ultimately offers a reassuring narrative of Empire. At a time of debate about these histories, I argue that the memorialising of Morris in the wake of her death represents one example of a continuing refusal to face the ongoing consequences of Empire.
What Am I Still Doing Here? Jarvis, Robin
Journeys (New York, N. Y.),
06/2018, Volume:
19, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article offers preliminary thoughts on travel writing from a gerontological perspective. Gender, race, and sexuality have provided important analytical frames for travel writing studies, but age ...has yet to function as a topic or point of reference. Through a consideration of five travel books by respected modern authors—Jan Morris, Dervla Murphy, V. S. Naipaul, Paul Theroux, and Colin Thubron—the article asks what motivates travel writers to stay “on the road” into their seventies and beyond, and what the distinctive features of travel narratives written at this life stage might be. The article aims to demonstrate the intrinsic fascination of travel books in which a strong abiding curiosity about the world coexists with an acute—and often melancholy—awareness of the passing of time and personal mortality.
