A short history of humour in travel writing

Abstract

Until comparatively recent times, travel writing has not been a genre renowned for its humorous qualities. Yet nothing demonstrates the cultural and historical relativity of humour as clearly as the evolution of travel writing from the early nineteenth century onwards. With a focus on three narratives of failed quests, this essay traces the broad developmental arc of humour in travel writing over two hundred years. The narrative of John Ross’s Arctic expedition exemplifies the way in which colonial-era writing invites readers to share a comic superiority over simple-minded indigenes. From the mid-twentieth century, Eric Newby’s work illustrates a trend towards self-irony and self-mockery whereby humour becomes a versatile expression of the rhetoric of anti-conquest. Finally, Bill Bryson’s books typify the increasing reliance in contemporary writing on incongruities of form and content and other strategies consistent with the development of a post-touristic travel stance.