2026–2027 Literature Resource Guide: Journeys, Quests, and Travel in Literature

A collection of vocabulary terms exploring the history, theory, and types of journey and quest narratives in literature.

Erich Auerbach

A Jewish-German exile living in Istanbul during World War II who authored the influential work of literary criticism titled Mimesis.

Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature ($1946$)

A work of literary criticism by Erich Auerbach that traces the origins of "mimetic" storytelling from antiquity through modern literature.

Mimetic storytelling

A term referring to literary representations of the external social world.

The Odyssey

Homer’s epic which Auerbach uses to illustrate a journey where "everything is visible," meaning characters are transparent and all details are in the foreground.

Abraham's journey to Mt. Moriah

A Biblical narrative that Auerbach contrasts with the Odyssey, characterized by gaps, absences, and interior thoughts that remain hidden from the reader.

Quest narrative

In its simplest form, any story in which a journey is undertaken to complete a goal, during which the protagonist experiences a significant change.

Archetype

A story element, such as a character type or a plot structure, that recurs across multiple generations and cultures.

Epic of Gilgamesh

A Sumerian epic written around $2000$ bce that contains archetypical features of quest narratives.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A $c. \text{ fourteenth century}$ narrative from Arthurian mythology that exemplifies the archetypal quest with a hero and a challenging journey.

Geographical transformation

A type of narrative change involving journeys into places radically different from home, other planets, or different time periods.

Ethical transformation

A change in the values and beliefs of characters, specifically regarding their ideas of right and wrong, as seen in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ($1885$).

Existential transformation

A journey focused on the hero’s changed understanding of themselves, including their self-definition, religion, or purpose in life.

Bildungsroman

A "coming-of-age" story about growth and maturation, often involving geographical, ethical, and existential transformations.

Travel writing

A genre that predates modern tourism and serves as either part of an autobiographical project or an extension of the external details of a specific location.

Guidebook (travel book)

A form of travel writing focused on providing practical, unassuming information to tourists about a region's locations and cultural nuances.

The Wonder of England

A fictional guidebook written by Jane Symons used by the character Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day ($1989$).

Orientalism

A term coined by Edward Said ($1978$) for the process by which European writers created an enduring and false image of Asian and Middle Eastern cultures as exotic and inscrutable.

Edward Said

Author of the influential $1978$ book Orientalism, which identifies the discursive strategies used by travel writers to construct the idea of the "Orient."

Contact zones

A term coined by Mary Louise Pratt for social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in asymmetrical relations.

Mary Louise Pratt

The scholar who defined "contact zones" as regions of cross-cultural interaction that can encourage understanding or promote misunderstanding.