Series | Library of Rassegna iberistica
Edited book | Iberian Studies. Dialogues from Italy
Chapter | Viagens na Minha Terra. Esplorazioni iberiche della prossimità (cibo e thanaturismo)
Abstract
The chapter takes as starting point a famous book by Almeida Garrett, Viagens na Minha Terra (1846), one of the first books to explore a nearby reality in the Iberian area, a mixed genre work, fundamental in the construction of the Portuguese national identity through the author’s journey to Portugal. It is an internalised landscape from which many historical or fantastic episodes arise related to themes that the author expresses: the violence of war, the joke of the gothic novel, anti-religious criticism about the parasitism of the friars. The purpose of this article is to reflect on several examples of proximity travel written by Iberian authors: José Pla, Viaje en autobús (1942), Camilo José Cela, Viaje a la Alcarria (1946) and José Saramago, Viagem a Portugal (1981). These travel books take advantage of the travelogue feature: to travel, but also to express opinions, analysis and criticisms with the eyes of the essayist, so that the result is much more than a simple guide, with the advantage that travellers are profound connoisseurs of the reality they visit.
Submitted: Oct. 20, 2020 | Accepted: Feb. 10, 2021 | Published July 5, 2021 | Language: it
Keywords Travel • Almeida Garrett • José Saramago • Thanatourism • Camilo José Cela • Food Studies • Josep Pla
Copyright © 2021 Enric Bou. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-505-6/005