Why do we travel? What are we doing - and what do we imagine we are doing - when we leave the house, get on a plane and thereby step into globalism? The Importance of Elsewhere is a collection of essays, rooted in Randy Malamud's own lifetime of travel, that addresses those questions and more. Setting today's tourism in the context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century experiences of travel and travel writing, he uncovers motives and appreciations of movement, difference and novelty that are deeply woven into the imperial enterprise - and that remain key drivers of our interest in and enjoyment of travel today. Marrying concrete case studies and lively personal anecdotes, The Importance of Elsewhere will be of interest to any global traveler who has ever stopped to wonder what it is that draws her to faraway places.

About the Author

Randy Malamud is the Regents' Professor of English at Georgia State University and the author of eight books, including Reading Zoos: Representations of Animals and Captivity and Poetic Animals and Animal Souls. He regularly writes for Salon and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Reviews

'Randy Malamud, a distinguished American professor of English . . . likes to get on planes. He is not a naive tourist but a "travelling humanist". He might carry a lot of literary baggage, but he travels light. His knowledge informs his tourism. It doesn't squash it... He recognises the dangers of travel. Planes can carry nasty bacteria to anywhere with an international airport. But Malamud wants to be a carrier of ease rather than disease, transmitting to his readers the way travel can provoke joy, widen our aesthetics and offer a buffet of experiences.'

-- Jeremy MacClancy * Times Higher Education *



Book Information
ISBN 9781783208746
Author Randy Malamud
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Intellect Books
Publisher Intellect Books
Weight(grams) 399g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 13mm