Travel Writing, literary genre, widely acknowledged and popular for centuries, the subject of which is generally a journey to or through a foreign country. Debate continues over a precise definition of this literary form. It is usually recognized by its adherence to one or more of the following conventions: a non-fictional narrative written in the first person singular (or plural), describing a journey—less often a period of residence—in a foreign country, full of observations of landscapes encountered, including their geography, flora, and fauna, and of the lifestyles, history, and social customs of the human inhabitants.
In addition to providing such empirical information, travel writing invariably contains a strong element of adventure. Often this centres on the exciting incidents thrown up by the itinerary, or the historical dramas associated with locations visited by the narrator. Another strong tradition in contemporary travel writing, given that it is a predominantly Western literary form, is a romantic longing for a vanished Eden, which has been banished by industrialization in the writers' native countries, but is still discernible in the people and landscapes of foreign places.
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