Transnational representations in travel narrative

The contributions of imagology in three contexts (hispanic, francophone and lusophone)

Abstract

In a globalized world context, theoretical contributions to understand transnational relations are increasingly valued. In this sense, we propose to highlight the potential of viatical texts, recurring to an imagological approach. We will illustrate some assumptions with three contextually very distinct travel narratives: a hispanic one, Por tierras de España y Portugal, by Miguel de Unamuno (the great literary reference of intra-iberian imagology); a francophone narrative, Viaje al Congo by André Gide (representation of the Other in colonial times); and, finally, a lusophone one, Breviário do Brasil, by Agustina Bessa-Luís. The latter will be more of a journey into Portugal’s colonial memory.