Outward Voyages, Inner Journeys in the Travel Novels of Joseph Conrad, Henry James and Graham Greene

Abstract

This thesis explores the inner, spiritual journey inherent in any outward, physical voyage and seeks to examine the reflection of the introspected on the observed, usually found in travel writing, in the fictional genre of the novel. It also proposes the label “travel novel” to categorize novels that rely on trips and whose characters travel largely in the course of the narrative. Resting on the premises that travel writing which is autobiographical and often takes the form of diaries and memoirs is generally a pretext for self-exploration in parallel with the discovery of other vistas in trips, it subsumes that travel which permits knowledge of the outside world and of the other equally fosters self-knowledge. This assumption is extended to fictional novels about travels wherein the traveller-character epitomizes the same process of self-discovery in parallel with outer voyages and understanding of the other. It is further generalized to third-person narratives by demonstrating that the surrounding scenery and the geographical spaces of travel novels reverberate the psychological states of the characters and that their spiritual questioning is echoed and projected onto the moving setting without being voiced in the first person. To encompass as broad a range of travel novels and narrative patterns as possible, the selection of the corpus under study includes the sea travel novels of Joseph Conrad, the transatlantic ones of Henry James and the global, worldwide works of Graham Greene. Lord Jim, The Ambassadors and The Power and the Glory are respectively chosen for their heterodiegetic narratives and various and wide topoi as well as their epitome of the different forms of trips such as navigation, tourism and escape. The three travel novelists are hence showed to avail themselves of psychogeography, heterotopias and even heteroglossia to substantiate metaphysical journeys and enhance both outer and inner knowledge.