Travel Narratives: Individual and Social Landscapes of Culture - Research Paper Example

Teacher’s Number Travel Narratives of Celebi, Cesaire, Basho and Mahfouz: Individual and social landscapes of culture. In Zaabalawi (Mahfouz, 2531), the reason for the travel is described in the very beginning of the narration. The narrator has lamented that, “the days passed and brought with them many illnesses, for each one of which I was able, without too much trouble and at a cost I could afford, to find a cure, until I became afflicted with that illness for which no one possesses a remedy” (Mahfouz, 2531). But soon the protagonist is seen setting out on a journey in which he hopes to find an eternal remedy. Thus travel became a metaphor of life and human quest. For the narrator in this text, the mythical figure of Zaabalawi, was an elusive, yet very powerful destiny, in search of whom, he set out on a journey through the Cairo streets. What he encountered throughout his travel, were glimpses of the common destiny of human history itself. So when the narrator met the musician, he mused, “I went to the musician’s house in Tabakshiyya, where I found him in a room tastefully furnished in the old style, its walls redolent with history” (Mahfouz, 2534-5). The narrator was always attentive to the details of his surroundings and to the images he saw throughout the journey. Thus, “the lushness of the cosy carpet” that he has seen amidst his travel (Mahfouz, 2532), “the sheep skin rug” of old Hassenein (Mahfouz, 2534) and “the silk galabeya and a carefully wound turban” of the drunkard (Mahfouz, 2536) got entry into the narrative. Throughout the journey, what the narrator has seen is the loss of memory regarding traditional and spiritual values in the face of modernity (Mahfouz, 2537). Thus this short story has relocated itself as a travel through the inner recesses of human culture. The narrator was drunk and asleep (which is another form of memory loss) when finally Zaabalawi came to him. When he woke up, he knew that Zaabalawi had come. The spiritual journey of the narrator had, in a sense, come to an end but the succeeding words of him has reminded the reader that this was only the beginning of the travel. The narrator has said, “let me content myself with having made certain of the existence of Zaabalawi, and even of his affection for me, which encourages me to think that he will be prepared to cure me if a meeting takes place between us” (Mahfouz, 2538). Though there have been several analyses of this short story by critics, the one made by Najjar (1998) has been an exceptional one. Najjar has summed up Mahfouz’s thoughts by calling him an agnostic, “who suspends judgment regarding the existence of a Supreme Being and revelation” (1998). Najjar (1998) has extended this analysis to explain why Naguib Mahfouz was victim to the wrath of conventional religion. Thus the spiritual voyage of the narrator is seen also as a reflection of the intellectual travels of the author in search of truth and true religion. ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’ authored by Aime Cesaire has been a totally different kind of narrative with its travel motif being a political voyage into the dehumanizing effect of colonialism and the human effort to break free from it. The existential space visited by the author through his literary voyage is described as a land of despair “where death scythes widely” (Cesaire, 2550). History of human bondage has been represented by a simple yet morbid expression of agony; namely, “so much blood in my memory” (Cesaire, 2555). These words have been further explained by the line, “my memory is encircled with blood. My memory has a belt of corpses” (Cesaire, 2555). Cesaire has declared in this work that “my negritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamour of the day….my negritude is neither tower nor cathedral” (2549). Thus he has expressed his belief that life has to be lived in full in the present, and not in monuments or not in history. And Cesaire has made his “Notebook”, a travelogue in the path of decolonization of the self. The warnings of Cesaire to the racist exploiters were summed up in a few sour words jumping out of his pen as if a lump of spit. Those words were, “put up with me, I won’t put up with you.”( Cesaire, 2568). But then the narrator is redeemed into humanity when he asks the god not to make him as hateful to his oppressors as they were to him (Cesaire, 2568). Thus this poetic exercise has become a cleansing voyage from hatred to humanism. Hale (2010) has described Cesaire’s poetic style as a synthesis of literary and the political. This is the inherent quality that made his poetry grow branching out into the sky of imagination and all the same digging roots deep into the social reality. Writing in Paris and later returning to his native land Martinique, Cesaire has led by hand the black and oppressed communities of the world through the narrow alleys of servitude towards the light of freedom (Hale, 2010). Matsuo Basho has been, on the contrary, a dream voyager. He had proclaimed a very clear reason for his travel when he said, “travel is life, travel is home (Basho, 607). He has also, in the very beginning of his work, drawn attention to his poetic assumption that “the sun and moon are eternal voyagers; the years that come and go are travelers too” (Basho, 607). Words like these have expressed a kind of inevitability about travel in human life. Here, the traveler has underwent an experience of being one with the travel. There are two selves of Basho reflected in this work. One is the real Basho who made his travels with the pointed objective of popularizing his poetry and the other is the old man depicted in the work who travels in search of the footprints of old poets. Thus “Narrow Road” has become the story of two parallel voyages. Carter (2000) has described Basho’s travel as a “professional practice” and said that it yielded “professional rewards” to Basho (190). The differentiation between Basho, the traveler-poet and Basho, the man is depicted by Carter (2000) as an interplay of the mundane and the creative in the life of a traveler (196). Literally there is also a third dimension to these travels; this being a journey through nature and culture as well. Basho has said that though he wanted to travel light there were things that he could not throw away for practical or sentimental reasons. It is indicated here that a traveler is never free of the cultural baggage that he has been supposed to leave behind. So, the eyes of the traveler could be biased by them as well (Basho, 612). The narrative of this work has been full of village life that he saw. Basho has drawn a vivid picture of it when he said, “when the girls had planted a square of paddy field, I stepped out of the shade of a willow tree” (619). For every place that Basho had traversed, he never has forgotten to remind the reader of the significance of that placed in relation with an earlier poet (Basho, 607-629). In the graveyard of the brave warrior Sato, Basho is seen literally weeping (Basho, 621). This can be considered as an acknowledgement of his intimacy with the culture and history of his native land. Throughout the narrative, history and culture has been coming alive in different hues and colors. Suffering and pain were also part of this travel experience for Basho. He has lamented, “ It was indeed a terrible thing to be so ill on the road, when there still remained thousands of miles for me, but thinking that if I were to die on my way to the extreme north, it would only be the fulfillment of providence, I trod the earth as firmly as possible..” (Basho, 621). So, the analogy of this journey to life itself is once again made. His writing style was a mix of poetic prose and verse and his book is more a record of the inner self as reflected in the outer world than being a realistic narrative. The traveler has achieved a spiritual bonding with the places he visited and when he had to leave, he said, “sadly, I part from you, like a clam torn from its shell; I go and autumn too” (Basho, 603). The analysis of this text conducted by Carter (2000) has also thrown light into less explored aspects of this work such as the process, ideology, and the cultural interface created by a traveler. Basho is thus read in a new light where he is the poet and the traveler with a reason, at the same time remaining a traveler and poet for the sake of travel and poetry alone. Evliya Celebi could be seen as the most even headed traveler among the four travelers discussed here. Though he had proclaimed in the beginning of his book that it was none other than prophet Mohammed who had encouraged him to set out on his long travels by appearing in a dream, the rest of his journey was prompted by more material connections (Celebi, 283). But the story of his dream had given a solid anchorage to his wanderlust, which no body religious could refute because of the divine element involved. The way Celebi, in his accounts, has mixed up, “serious” with the “frivolous” has been ideologically analyzed by Bruinessen (2000) and inferred upon as the greatest asset of this narrative, both culturally and historically. This post-modern study (Bruinessen, 2000) has summed up the ‘Book of Travels’ as being a collection of “government documents and dirty jokes, descriptions of mosque architecture and observations on local food and dress habits, legends about saints and gossip about political events side by side; all of this peppered with Evliyas own adventures.” This amazing variety has been proof to the varied interests of the traveler and the dynamism with which he has tried to understand and define new cultures. Celebi’s passion for variety has been part of his urge to leave nothing out. Ergene (2001) has provided an analysis of Celebi’s “Book of Travels” from a socio-political angle and has concluded that Celebi had sustained a keen interest in, and (sometimes) an active role in the political conflicts of that Ottoman era. Most of the conflicts of that period were among the powerful elite groups and Celebi has often showed sympathies for the rebel leaders in his narrative (78). Thus the traveler was surpassing the role of an observer and he was becoming part of creating history. By describing the nuances in the construction of buildings and the construction of cultures through languages, Celebi has redrawn the social and geographical landscape of Ottoman Empire with the eyes of a curious observer (Celebi, 286-292). But he was a strongly opinionated narrator too (Celebi, 286-292). Ergene (2001) has also stressed on “Evliya’s reproach of the imperial center” (78). But all the same it has become evident from several pages of this book that Celebi had no mercy for infidels. He has said that Hungarians and Germans knew to communicate only at the point of a spear, Australians and Jews were not brave enough for a fight and the deeds of Jews were calculated to treachery and to kill Muslims (Celebi, 286-288). All these four books examined above have been, in whole, a celebration of human progress; a travel from known to the unknown, bondage to freedom, reality to hope and mundane to the creative. The complexities of human life and the sublimities of its expression is the common thread among them. The travel continues. Works Cited Basho, Matsuo, “The Narrow Road of the Interior”, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol D 1650-1800, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.pp.603-629. Bruinessen, Martin van “Kurdistan in the 16th and 17th centuries, as reflected in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname”, The Journal of Kurdish Studies 3 (2000), p1-11. http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Evliya_Celebi_Kurdistan.htm Carter, Steven.D, “Basho and The Mastery of Poetic Space in Oku No Hosomichi”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.120, Issue 2, p190, 9p, EBSCOhost, Apr-June 2000 web 22 March 2010, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=103&sid=679a3624-a4c2-40cd-8656-3bef6393f1aa@sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=3857774 Celebi, Evliya, “The Ottoman Empire: Celebi’s Book of Travels” The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol D 1650-1800, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.pp.281-292. Cesaire, Aime, “Notebook of a Return to My Native Land” The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol F, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp.2542-2570. Ergene, Bogac. A., “On Ottoman Justice: Interpretations in Conflict (1600-1800)”, Islamic Law and Society, Vol.8, Issue 1, p52, 36p, Feb 2001 web 22 March 2010, EBSCOhost, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=26&hid=8&sid=c5dafea1-d1b9-4fbc-84a8-64c6021c26da@sessionmgr14 Hale, Thomas.A and Veron, Kora, “ Is there Unity in the Writings of Aime Cesaire?”, Research in African Literatures, Vol.41, Issue 1, p46-70, 25p, Spring 2010 web 22 March 2010, EBSCOhost, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=9&hid=13&sid=679a3624-a4c2-40cd-8656-3bef6393f1aa@sessionmgr111 Mahfouz, Naguib, “Zaabalawi”, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol F, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp.2527-2538. Najjar, Fauzi.M., “Islamic Fundamentalism and The Intellectuals: The Case of Naguib Mahfouz”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.25, Issue 1, p.139, 30p, May 98. web. 22 March 2010, EBSCOhost, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=105&sid=679a3624-a4c2-40cd-8656-3bef6393f1aa@sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=730555 Brenda Diaz (Garza) World Literature Date Journal – Evliya Celebi The Book of Travels Learning history from Celebi and seeing the Ottoman Empire through the eyes of this traveler has been a unique experience for me. It is like living in an alien land. The experience is so real. Celebi’s travels are immersed in culture and are adventurous as well. What attracted me most in this book is the attention given to detailing. While reading along, I personally feel that humans have not changed much in their basic nature. Celebi has narrated extensively, the conflicts of that era, which according to me were not concerned with human welfare but only petty selfish motives. They were not ideological either. I understand that Evliya had a partisan approach in his narrative. But I welcome it as it reflects the Ottoman mentality and culture of which Evliya is also a part, when we watch from this era. But within the parameters of his culture and social conditioning I find Evliya quite impartial. The stories of imperial marriage associations depicted by Evliya are intricate accounts of the political as well as the social system of Ottoman period. To look back in history, is an exercise to remind oneself that there lived people who went through greater conflicts and greater peace and happiness in history than us. Also reading this book is an occasion for me to realize that social norms are a product of time. Evliya’s somewhat fragmented narrative has often left me desiring for more. If this writer had tried to give more dramatic strength to his narration, I think, this book must have been devour able. The comic anecdotes of his adventures, brought smile to my lips even though his partisan approach often reflected in them. I wondered what such a traveler must have felt, moving around in the hot sun and watching people fight with each other and plot against each other. But I think Celebi disapproved of the selfish ways of the social elite. He must have felt the futility of their petty egos and fights, as his insights into life being shaped by watching many civilizations (286-89). Celebi’s curiosity towards different dialects has made me see the sharpness of his observations. He had a very keen nose for what excited the readers of his period. Celebi has also described the attires and living spaces of the people in detail. He keenly observed architecture of each and every place. I could not stop wondering about his political knowledge as well. Many influential people are seen asking his opinion regarding serious political matters. He is respected as a knowledgeable man owing simply to the travels that he made. I am sure he might have returned from his travels wiser. A progression is seen in his views regarding tolerance towards other cultures as his journey moved ahead. He did not blindly believe in the Sultan. He had his own views, which some times also shifted against the Sultan. Both his official and informal travel accounts had equally reflected his interest in matters of law, diplomacy and politics. Thus we can estimate that these were his priorities. While analyzing Celebi’s book, I have arrived at the conclusion that he lacked an eye to see the miseries of the common folk, and their life. We could only draw conclusions about the poverty and oppression of that era by making projections on Celebi’s accounts. Yet, this traveler has left me wonder-struck regarding the huge volume of his work, the patience with which he undertook this with as much detailing as possible and the interest he took in deciphering the real politics of Ottoman Empire. Works Cited Celebi, Evliya, “The Ottoman Empire: Celebi’s Book of Travels” The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol D 1650-1800, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.pp.281-292. Brenda Diaz (Garza) World Literature Date Journal – Aime Cesaire Notebook of a Return to The Native Land I have been aware of the complex political overtones of Aime Cesaire’s works and especially, “Notebook of a Return to The Native Land”. But as I started reading this book, the first thing that caught me unaware was the power of his verse. This was something I had never experienced before, something smelling of dust and toil. This was something exuberant with raw cultural honesty. It was like tasting a cold iron surface. It was familiar and yet wild. I felt Cesaire was trying to make the unbearable, more bearable through a postmortem by words. Everything ugly, unappealing and even disgusting was coming alive with unbelievable poetic strength. I started wondering how one could hate so intensely unless one loved so intensely. And soon I started to realize that it was out of sheer love for humanity that so much anger and hatred was being expressed against the dehumanizing effect of colonialism. I felt as if the whole of nature and its all elements were coming alive in a surge to correct the errors of human destiny (2542-2543). The images of mud, water, dust and ruin were breaking out of their implied meanings and standing apart as pillars of protest. While reading through some lines, I felt the whole poem was written in blood and agony. But the strength of ‘Negritude’ was soon pouring out as a refreshing shower of hope and resurrection. The honesty of the writer was nearly suicidal. I could feel the anguish in every pulse of my vein, when I read on. Cesaire was unique in his hatred of the oppressors as well (2569). He does not want to stoop as low as his oppressors even if it was necessary to confront them (2570). He keeps his dignity and his ability to joke even in the face of death and despair. His black humor gives a finishing blow to well-crafted words of retaliation. Nobody could ever dare to question it without the fear of spilling all the skeletons stalked in the cupboard of colonialism. The victory of truth and wisdom is what gives the poem a positive tinge, in the end. To me, Cesaire is a very courageous sailor who dared to go deep inside the ocean of humanism and evading the tentacles of racial hatred came up with a pearl of human brotherhood. For him, resistance is something dissolved deep in every breath. His words have a smell of bitterness and the taste of iron will. All the discredited materials on this earth rise only to get transformed into the most beautiful things on earth when touched by Cesaire’s words. His sarcasm is sharp when it comes to the victorious races and his compassion is endless towards the oppressed (2568). He has also made me aware that it is the oppressors who are doomed and in need of pity. Because they never knew how they had foregone their chance to live in peace, in harmony with others. After reading this book, I felt myself purified and redeemed. It was like a therapy by history. Now I have also become part of this search for freedom and equality. Cesaire has reminded me that I need to be more sensitive towards the injustices in this world. I should never walk away believing that they were not going to affect me, because, oppression is an epidemic. If you do not treat it, the whole humanity will be affected. Works Cited Cesaire, Aime, “Notebook of a Return to My Native Land” The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol F, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp.2542-2570. Brenda Diaz (Garza) World Literature Date Journal – Matsuo Basho The Narrow Road to The Interior I opened the first page of ‘The Narrow Road to The Interior” and read on. I started to fly like a feather under a lonely blue sky. Basho is simply ethereal. ‘Adrift’ is the word that could come near to the feeling that one gets when one goes through this masterpiece. It is not a travel by road, but on the wings of a lovely evening breeze. Basho proclaims himself that he, the wanderer, is the first winter rain (607). He never sees any mortal on his road, but only the autumn evening (610). As I read on, I started wondering how could one observe nature so deep. The concentration I could feel in Basho’s words was picture perfect and tranquil. It was as if the poet could sit still under a tree until eternity if he wanted to. But he also concerns himself woth the mundane and tells us tales of the historic and important places that he visited. When he reintroduced the poets who sat on the branches of history once, I could feel the vastness of knowledge that humans can achieve only through generations. I felt Basho was searching for himself through his travels. He was searching truth and perfection. His travel, to me, was an experiment to find out if one could dissolve oneself totally in nature and humanity forgetting one’s selfhood. But all the same it was surprising for me to see that Basho could be very practical and of this world, whenever he wanted to be so. It is evident that he was trying to establish himself as a poet master of his era. I have also read that Basho had fabricated and twisted facts so as to impart poetic strength to his verse and to make them show him in a more favorable light. Though the narrator is an ailing old man, I could smell the freshness of springs in his words. When Basho says, “an orchid’s perfume transfers incense to the wings of the butterfly”, it was like I was drinking sublime poetry for the first time in my life (612). In every breath of nature, Basho could see beauty. I thought, with such a sweet outlook, I could have been thousands times happier in life. But I know that like any other talented poet, Basho was feeling lonely, and uncertain about his life. He was even thinking of death amidst all this beauty. I feel this is the contradiction that we face in life. Surrounded by the abounding beauty of life, we lament in silly matters. Even then, what keep him alive are the glimpses of that beauty that come to visit him and get reflected in his verse. I have been thus attracted to the philosophy of Basho as much as to his poetry. The use of poetic prose and verse intermittently is another aspect of Basho’s poetry that charms me. I feel this style is more close to a person’s inner expressions. Whenever one needs to indicate a transformation in one’s mood, one can switch over between these two styles. To me, this seems to be more freedom in one’s expressions. After reading Basho, I have also been thinking about the changes that might have happened to rural Japan since Basho traveled through the narrow roads. Will on enow be able to see all the biodiversity that Basho reported? Would the villages be as tranquil as it used to be in his days? I am sure they won’t be. From an environmentalist’s view point, if we read Basho, we would understand what humans have destroyed in nature and what immense peace we have foregone in vein. Works Cited Basho, Matsuo, “The Narrow Road of the Interior”, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol D 1650-1800, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.pp.603-629. Brenda Diaz (Garza) World Literature Date Journal – Naguib Mahfouz Zaabalawi I feel that the ailing young man in ‘Zaabalawi’ is me, myself. For that matter, every human being who trod on this earth must have at one juncture or other felt a similar urge to travel in search of truth and eternal healing. The existential and emotional wounds that we have to suffer from, since our evolution to consciousness, have been incurable. But we have been searching for a cure since times immemorial. In the beginning of the story itself, we are informed that the narrator had tried out all the commonly accepted cures for his disease but failed. Here, I think, begins the process of breaking away from approved norms and conventions. And hence the opposition that Mahfouz had to face from religious fundamentalists. In other words, I think, Mahfouz was suggesting that existing religious system could not find a panacea to our spiritual sicknesses. The calligrapher Hassanein was the one who impressed me more in this story because he had experienced what it was to be close to Zaabalawi, namely truth (2530). Hassanein also tells the narrator that Zaabalawi was nothing more or less than a man. This is the first suggestion that truth resides in one’s own self. I was fascinated by this idea that truth could be so simple and that it became unnoticed throughout our life as we tried to find it in more complicated spaces. When the narrator knows Zaabalawi had a beautiful voice, as a reader I felt this was suggestive of the most intimate and personal medium of human communication, namely voice. The suggestion that Zaabalawi may be concealed even among the beggars is an infusion of Christian religious thought into Islam by the author (2532). For that matter, I think there is an influence of Christianity and Sufi thoughts in the author’s philosophy. Towards the end of the story, I think the drunkenness of the narrator and the appearance of Zaabalawi at the same moment reflects the view that truth could be realized only when one is free from the past and one’s ego. That is why the narrator is depicted as loosing his memory and will. (2538). For me, as I told in the beginning of this reminiscences, ‘Zaabalawi’ is connected to my inner conflicts and quests also. The dilemma that the narrator faces when he seems to be so close to seeing Zaabalawi yet so far away from him is the same agony that I have felt when I thought of the meaning of life. The versions of people vary and we get carried away in the flow of their arguments. Even truth seems to be relative in such a context. But the narrator has enough faith in himself to carry on his search of the eternal truth, which many often lack. I take this as a lesson to be learned from this short story. I think it is not the attainment that matters but to continue the search. The narrator though having missed the unique chance to meet Zaabalawi has really been convinced that Zaabalawi exists. In my opinion also, life should move ahead with this message. A journey through Cairo town by the narrator thus becomes my individual journey also. Works Cited Mahfouz, Naguib, “Zaabalawi”, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd Edition Vol F, Sarah Lawall (General Editor) et al., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp.2527-2538. A Reply Note 1. What I meant was that the dominating cultural trends, naturally concentrated in the city was trying to bring the rural folk also into its fold. A process of homogenization of culture was taking place, as communication and transportation facilities grew. 2. By saying that the poet strayed from truth, I was trying to draw attention to Basho’s proved manipulation of facts to highlight himself as a master poet and to give more poetic strength to his verse by dramatizing real events and even distorting them. 3. Using Carter’s interpretation of Basho as an ambitious poet, I wanted to discuss the process of travel as an ideology, and a cultural interface. I used this information to prove that a traveler can be guided by multiple objectives, which can also be contradictory to each other. Travel as a socio-cultural process is multi-faceted, I believe. 4. Bruinessen places Evliya’s book, as the greatest depiction of everyday life of the Ottoman Empire. Bruinessen has explained the reason for this. He has observed that Evliya Celebi has not left out frivolous details, which other historians or narrators must have avoided as irrelevant. But when looked into from another era, these frivolous matters are very important to decipher how the people of that period lived. This is why Bruinessen places this book as the greatest depiction of everyday life of the Ottoman Empire. 5. When I said, Naguib Mahfouz’s works angered the political Islam, I was referring to the power centers of that religion as an establishment in contrast to the spiritual authority of that religion. Read More