1930s travel writing was strongly affected by the volatile political climate of its time. The young intellectuals who went abroad in such astonishing numbers almost always traveled along the fault lines of political crisis and ideological conflict. In part, this can be explained by the belief that direct engagement with political realities may yield some answers to the most pressing questions of the period, i.e. matters of political ideology, socio-economic renewal, and imperialism. My thesis, dealing with travel books by Waugh, Orwell, Greene, and West, demonstrates that 1930s travel writers often followed political promptings when visiting certain places. In turn, the conditions they found in these places helped them to formulate their political ideas.
Waugh's travel writings are conservative responses to the sprectre of anarchy, both at home and abroad. Orwell's travel books were conceived as instruments of social change, reassuring those who saw in the economic slump an indication that social changes were inevitable. Greene's progress from a search for innocence in Africa to a recognition of sin and fallenness in Mexico mirrors the progress of the 1930s from a belief in transformation to an awareness of impending doom. Finally, Rebecca West attacked the foundations of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policies and outlined a historical paradigm that linked contemporary politics with historical events on the Balkans. Thus, 1930s travel writing was not only deeply implicated in the major issues of the times, but also considered to be an adequate medium for the transmission of political arguments.
In my presentation I will show how two different 1930s travel writers used their impressions from abroad to further specific ideological interests. The books I chose are Remote People by Evelyn Waugh and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West; the issue I focus on is imperialism. In Remote People, Waugh presents uncolonized Ethiopia as a sort of dystopia, and the Kenya colony as a utopian realm. In his descriptions of Ethiopia, Waugh dwells on the country's virulent anarchy and technological underdevelopment in order to strengthen conservative ideas about order and authority. The "Happy Valley" of Kenya, on the other hand, captures Waugh's belief in the social and political righteousness of paternalistic colonialism. Rebecca West traveled to Yugoslavia as a feminist and anti-imperialist. Her stupendous book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, is pervaded by the apprehension of imperial threats levelled against the Balkan nations. Beyond its function as a travel book, the work is a liberationist treatise, as West details her anti-Bellocian world-view, attacks the ideological foundations of (masculine) power, and explores the ethical basis of sacrifice and violence. West ingeniously weaves her ideological propositions into descriptions of certain places and their historical significance, especially Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Kossovo. Her arguments are directly opposed to Waugh's pro-imperial ethos. These two examples show how different travel destinations offered 1930s writers material for very different political arguments. Also they confirm my overall finding that 1930s journeys were considered to be political acts and travel books a platform for political discourses.
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