Eighteenth-Century Travel Writing: New Directions

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Humanities considers the ways in which our thinking about eighteenth-century travelling practices and the texts that narrate them is informed and advanced by engagement with recent developments in the field of travel writing studies, or in the study of humanities more widely. It looks to identify critical approaches which offer new ways of thinking about familiar works and traditions, and it also invites the discussion of texts that have, to date, been neglected or passed over.

This Special Issue invites new perspectives on the “dominant categories” of travel writing in the eighteenth century—the Grand Tour, home tour, and “exotic sea voyages and explorations” (Leask 94-95)—as well as encouraging submissions that blur the boundaries between those categories, or which look to texts that do not fit these designations. This volume invites fresh thinking about forms of movement and experience, forms of textual production, and bodies that move in the spaces of travel. We also welcome contributions that offer a long view on present-day concerns about nature and climate change, by engaging with work in Environmental or Blue Humanities to provide a historical perspective on the impact of travel, or the way that travellers understand their relationship to the world around them. The editor is looking for contributions on travel writing from across the period, in manuscript or print, by travellers who are well known or who might be new to readers. Articles from a range of different linguistic, cultural, or travelling traditions are welcome.

These may include, but are not limited to, consideration of the following:

• Blue Humanities;
• Travel and environmental change;
• The “more-than-human”;
• Vertical, slow, or micro-travel;
• Travel and the senses;
• Travel and disability;
• Travel and the body;
• Travel and conflict;
• Travel and revolution;
• Forced journeys;
• Travel accounts in verse or image;
• Travellee perspectives;
• New perspectives on the relationship between the “rise of the novel” and the travel writing tradition.

Abstracts of 250 words should be sent to Dr. Zoë Kinsley or the editorial office by [31 May 2024]. Please also feel free to contact us for an informal discussion about the project.

Dr. Zoe Kinsley
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Authors of accepted abstracts will be asked to submit a full article for review by 31 October 2024. Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• blue humanities
• travel and environmental change
• the “more-than-human”
• vertical, slow, or micro-travel
• travel and the senses
• travel and disability
• travel and the body
• travel and conflict
• travel and revolution
• forced journeys
• travel accounts in verse or image
• traveler perspectives