Page 34 - KTUDELL E-LIT | Issue 4 - January 2025

ARTICLES 2025

WHERE THE ROAD TAKES US:

UNPACKING TRAVEL LITERATURE

THROUGH A SOCIOPOETICS LENS

by Yaren ERGENÇ
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson,
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

Ever felt that irresistible urge to just hit the open road, leaving all your worries behind? The open road has
always been filled with a promise of escape, of leaving behind the familiar and venturing into the
unknown. It's a siren song that whispers of freedom, of self-discovery, of the endless horizon just beyond
the next corner but what happens when the road itself becomes a source of a longing, a longing for a
memory engraved in the landscape of our past, a longing for a destination we never defined?

Without a direction, a goal, or a clear sense of where we’re heading, the road can lead us nowhere. Without
a destination, how can we choose a path, pick a route, or hope to arrive “there”? The journey without
purpose becomes mere wandering — a reflection of the human experience adrift, lost without meaning or
direction.

TRAVEL LITERATURE: STORIES BEYOND THE ROAD

Travel has long captivated the human imagination. It inspires journeys not only across physical landscapes
but also through the depths of the human spirit. From ancient epics like The Odyssey to modern memoirs
such as Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, travel literature transcends its narrative form, composing tales of
discovery, transformation, and the interplay between the traveller and the world. Plus, let’s not forget the
occasional chaos: missed trains, wrong turns, and the universal truth that no one actually reads the map.

Travel literature is a genre that encompasses narratives of journeys, explorations, and cultural encounters,
and has long been a rich field of study in literary academia. It offers more than the recounting of
adventures. It explores the spaces between the known and the unknown, often reflecting the internal
transformations of its protagonists. As Catherine Morgan-Proux expressively states in her introduction to
"Roadscapes, a Sociopoetics of the Road," travel literature pays "tribute to a rich tradition of how we
imagine the road, our relationship to it and what it means to us."1 The road, in this context, becomes more
than just a physical path; it is "a site, peopled by a constellation of travellers, drivers, passengers, long
distance voyagers, toll keepers, inn keepers and keepers of our dreams."1 These travel stories become a
bridge between personal introspection and universal truths, capturing the essence of human curiosity,
resilience, and longing — and the sheer panic of realizing you’ve booked a hostel with no locks on the
doors.

HIT THE ROAD JACK: ROUTE 66
Ah, but what if the road is more than a route? Take Route 66, for instance — an iconic stretch of asphalt
that has inspired countless stories, songs, and postcards. John Steinbeck famously referred to it as "the
mother road" in his novel The Grapes of Wrath2, coining the phrase for this iconic highway. It has since
become a direct road to the American imagination, inspiring countless works of literature, art, and popular
culture. Route 66 isn’t just a highway; it’s a symbol of freedom, nostalgia, and the allure of possibility. It’s
the kind of road where every pit stop feels like stepping into a time capsule, where diners still serve cherry
pie, and locals might share tales of the road’s heyday. Route 66 embodies everything that makes travel
literature compelling: the romance of exploration, the quirks of the journey, and the intersections of
personal and cultural history.

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