Diaspore

Quaderni di ricerca

Racconti di viaggio

Scritture e paesaggi tra mondi lontani

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open access | peer reviewed

Abstract
Exploring travel literature – whether short stories, diaries, chronicles, letters, or otherwise – is always challenging due to the multifaceted nature, richness, and diversity this writing style encompasses. The desire for adventure, the thirst for discovery and knowledge, the pain of exile, the search for a dreamlike landscape or escape from suffering are just some of the many motivations that have driven humankind to travel. And they continue to do so. In the Western world, in fact, from the Odyssey onward, the theme of travel has been the central theme for writers’ adventures. The journey can be undertaken in space or time, it can be real or imaginary, considering existence as an individual’s passage on earth, on a long and arduous journey toward self-discovery. It’s also important to remember that the journey, in order to exist, requires storytelling: without it, no trace would remain. Its existence, in fact, is given by the possibility of being narrated, written, and read, since any journey is significant not so much in relation to its realization, but thanks to the text that emerges from it. The essays in this volume of Diasporas ‘travel’ from Japan to Chile, passing through China, Russia, Iraq, Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Bolivia, Mexico... These texts, once again, demonstrate how travel literature (the narrative) offers potential yet to be discovered. Indeed, travel, beyond the confrontation with others, simultaneously destabilizes and enriches the identity of each of us.

Keywords Chinese travel writing • Travel account • Women • Women’s diary literature • Collective memory • Bolivia • Anna Maria Ortese • Mapuche • Siege • Sugawara no Takasue no musume • Transnational cultural encounters • Journey • Sarashina nikki • Creative writing • Journalism • Reportage • Travel diary • Modern Chinese literature • Subjective perspective • Travel writing • Literature • Travel • Bombardments • Russian literature • Spanish-American modernism • Cultural crossover • Self-learning • Amazonian rubber boom • Storytelling • Russia • Li Jianwu • Landscape • Daniela Catrileo • Famine • Kinship • Cinco inviernos, Cenizas rojas • Nature • Qajar dynasty • Rome • Stories • Ḥajj • Autobiography • Autobiographical literature • Chronicle • Jubilee • Death • Gender Studies • China-Italy mobility • Intersubjectivity • Travelogues • Women’s writing • Travel literature • Olga Merino • Iranian women • Latin American history • Republican exile • Indigenous • Chile • Letters from a Journey to Italy • Originality • Travelogue • War • 1900 • Rubén Darío • Heian period

Thema codes DSB • WTL • 5TD-IT-A

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-006-2 | e-ISBN 979-12-5742-006-2 | Published Dec. 15, 2025 | Language en, es, it

Copyright © 2025 Alide Cagidemetrio, Ricciarda Ricorda. 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.