Striving for Honesty: A Travel Writer in Brazil

Abstract

Striving for Honesty: A Travel Writer in Brazil The thesis comprises a book-length, market-orientated, non-fiction account of Brazil written from the perspective of an Australian woman who travelled in that country in the period leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, together with a related exegesis that investigates the reader’s expectations and other literary and ethical considerations associated with the sub-genre of the ‘travel book’. Major Work: ‘In Good Faith’ On a number of trips, between 2006 and 2013, the author travelled to and across Brazil. This experience forms the basis for the major work, ‘In Good Faith’, which explores elements of the culture that unify and diversify Brazilians in an attempt to better understand this colourful and contradictory nation. Through an exploration of what and how Brazilians celebrate and what and who they do (and don’t) commemorate, the author seeks to ‘know’ Brazil, to find out what makes Brazilians Brazilian and present her findings to her audience. She seeks to show how Brazil’s people make meaning and sense of the world. The resultant text draws on history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, the travel writing of others and travel writing theory to help explain and bring to life the events and encounters she experienced in small backlands towns through to the biggest Brazilian cities. Exegesis: Playing God: the Travel Book and its Potential to (Re)design the World The accompanying exegesis explores the question of whether honesty — and thus authorial integrity — is possible for the travel writer. Over recent decades there has been polarising debate about the role of, and the border between, fact and fiction in creative non-fiction in general and the travel book in particular. What is it that the reader of a ‘travel book’ reasonably expects? After examining a range of definitions of travel books and applying a modified version of Philippe Lejeune’s definition of, and criteria for, a work of autobiography, the exegesis shows that the ‘simple authorial promise’ from the writer of a travel book to her reader is that the writer aims for factual accuracy. But there are more complex promises to be found in modern travel books (and works of creative non-fiction generally), it is argued, that allow for deviations from factual accuracy or presenting characters, events and other details in ways other than how they happened. The exegesis explores the circumstances that allow the travel book to be included in the category of creative non-fiction while not confounding the reader’s expectation that she is reading an honest, if not factually accurate, account. It examines some of the misrepresentations notoriously told by travel writers over the centuries both intentionally and unintentionally. The paratexts of classic travel books by Robyn Davidson, Bill Bryson, Robert Byron, and Bruce Chatwin are considered while working through these issues. The author’s own practice-led research on this question is demonstrated in her major work, ‘In Good Faith’. The exegesis considers the grounds on which the deviations from factual accuracy — the fictions — that can be found in ‘In Good Faith’ should be regarded as legitimate or not.