Vagabond; Travel to Far Countries through a Postcolonial Perspective

Description:

Purpose: The study’s purpose is to examine Vagabond’s travel articles from a postcolonial perspective, to see if there are traces of colonial and racist discourses in journalists“and photographers” portrayal of other people and cultures outside Europe and the West Country. Method: As a knowledge theoretical starting point, a critical hermeneutic approach is used. Qualitative method has been applied in this study and critical discourse analysis is used in the analysis of travel articles. Conclusions: The final results show common features in descriptions of countries outside Europe and the West. Nature and the primitive lifestyle seem to be what the journalists seem most interested in describing. Modernity gets very little place in Vagabond’s articles about cultures outside Europe and the West Country. The travel journalism in Vagabond is marked by the reporter hunt’s own experiences and interpretations of the country and people in line with the colonial discourse. The environments from Asia, Africa and Latin America that dominate are trapped in rural areas. These are beaches, jungles, wildlife and high mountains. Modern cities and dwellings do not often perish in photographs or in descriptions in the texts. Of the 129 pictures in total, there are only 7 cityscapes. About half are pictures of nature, or man in nature. Thailand, Samoa, Venezuela, Bolivia and Uganda are the countries where nature occupies the largest place. Here are the magnificent views, clear blue waters, green mountains and wildlife that are allowed to represent these distant lands. It is the wild nature that becomes the object of our worship. The primitive lifestyle is also a frequent theme in the reportage in Vagabond 2005. We are often allowed to read about a fisherman or a mule keeper. Old mythologies, religions and goddesses are another commonly used subject that is in three of the reportages, including Samoa, Bolivia, and Egypt. Here the cultures are tied to the past. The report in Vagabond 2005 gives a strong feeling that the journalists have sought precisely the typical things in the countries and that the typical ones thus become stereotypical.

Format:

text

Collections:

Uppsala University

Content partner:

Uppsala University

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